A New Possibility
by Oni Makai
Summary: Within the infinite expanse of the multiverse, there lies a possibility where the world of Remnant, the world of Devil Hunters, and the world of the Azure are fused into a single reality, and much to the good fortune of those curious, we Observers are given the chance to see how this intriguing possibility unfolds. (Fusion fic of DMC, BlazBlue and RWBY.)
1. Prologue - ACT 1

**Prologue - ACT 1**

**White Castle Hall, Atlas Academy**

Hundreds of spectators were present within the said building. The reason behind this is because heiress to the Schnee Dust Company (SDC), Weiss Schnee, will be doing an opening performance for tonight's graduation ceremony. Many took photos using either their Scrolls, while most of the students just sat in their seats. It's not every day do they get a chance to hear the said heiress' angelic voice.

The heiress' elder sister, Winter, was also present within the building. She made a personal request to her superior, General Ironwood for her to be assigned as head of security for the event thinking of the possibility of a White Fang attack happening. Considering the bad blood the Schnee Family and the White Fang have toward each other, that scenario could in fact happen. Though, part of it was an excuse just to see her sister.

Upon the stage of Atlas' most well-known hall Weiss is seen walking towards the spotlight with a neutral expression on her face, her silver locks tied in a ponytail and flowed all the way down to her butt. Hearing that her sister would be able to attend her performance brought great joy to Weiss, even if it was just for one night.

But what made that joy disappear, was the fact that a certain someone seems to be running late. Not her father, which Weiss and her sister did not want the pleasure of seeing tonight. It was someone who was close to the heiress just like Winter, with the difference being that someone being a boy and is the complete opposite in attitude of the said Special Operative.

**Alsius City, 11.00pm**

Within the city, vehicles of all different types are seen driving along the road, with civilians walking down the streets. However a single motorcycle easily made its way through the road, veering left and right at great speeds to avoid the other vehicles. On it, a teenager with white hair and blue eyes was driving the motorcycle.

His attire consists of a dark blue undervest beneath his white colored trench coat, a pair of black pants, combat boots and a long red scarf around his neck. He also wore a black and red leather glove on his right hand, while the left wore a black fingerless glove and two rings; one on his index finger had a right clawed-hand design on its face with the back of the hand having a star-like pattern on it, and another on his ring finger which bears the Schnee family crest.

The boy was only 20 blocks away from the academy and began to speed up. But then a couple of blocks ahead of him, which just so happens to be one of many SDC's Dust storage compounds around Atlas, three black SUVs pulled up in front of the said building. Surprisingly enough, black hooded figures wearing Grimm masks got off the vehicles they were using, bearing weapons ranging from swords to assault rifles.

Seeing the sight unfold, the teenager rolled his eyes as he lets out a growl, frustrated that his arrival will be delayed even further than it already is.

As the melody of the piano echoed throughout the building, Weiss took a deep breath as she began singing... 

**[RWBY Vol.1 OST - Mirror, Mirror]**

**(Mirror, tell me something)**

Speeding towards the group of terrorists, the boy immediately pulled the break on the front wheel, performing a reverse wheelie. Hearing the loud screeching of tires behind them, the group turned towards the source of the sound. That was, until some of them got smacked across the face by a revolving motorcycle tire.

**(Tell me who's the loneliest of all)**

The White Fang goons that didn't get hit were stunned by the scene, immediately surrounds him and pointed their weapons towards the white haired boy. Before one of them lunges forward he quickly revs the throttle and spun his vehicle around, knocking more of them off their feet.

**(Mirror, tell me something)**

**(Tell me who's the loneliest of all)**

The white hair pops the motorcycle's crutch with the throttle locked in place, causing the vehicle to do donuts on its own before jumping off. Landing several feet away from the Fang, the boy took a good look at his opponents before giving them a confident smirk.

The criminals in front of him quickly got back onto their feet, one of which proceeded to tip over the motorcycle on its side. Bringing up his right arm, the boy's smirk turned into a scowl as he pulled down his coat's sleeve and removing his glove, revealing his unusual arm before quickly closing the gap between him and his opponents. 

**(Fear of what's inside of me;)**

**(Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?)**

Once close enough, the white hair immediately jumps and delivers a powerful dropkick to the one in front of him. The kick was so strong the victim of the said attack went flying backwards, crashing into his own comrades and scattering them. Pushing himself off the ground, the boy ran towards a goon closest to him and punches him in the gut with his right hand. The goon immediately gets knocked out by the strike and falls to the ground limply.

A Fang grunt tries flanking him from behind, but immediately receives a right elbow strike to the gut before getting flipped over the white hairs shoulder and crashing into another ally. Then another one came at him with a scimitar, but wielded the blade backwards for some reason. So the white hair catches the blade with his left hand and kicks the dumbass away with a roundhouse kick to the face.

He then flips the scimitar and grabs it by the handle in order to wield it properly. Five more grunts surrounded the teenager and lunges at him simultaneously. However, the white haired boy did a quick spin with the scimitar in hand and slashes all of them across the chest, casting a shadow upon a building wall once he stopped. In his right hand, a blue Scroll is seen resting within it, with texts reading 'Message Sent' on the screen.

At White Castle Hall, Winter walked around as to patrol the building for any suspicious activity, all while enjoying her sister's performance. Just then, her Scroll began to vibrate to gain the Specialist' attention. Opening her device, a message from Rodin Nero popped up onto the screen. 'Dispatch troops to Dust Storage compound near the Hall' the message read.

**(Mirror, mirror, what's behind you?)**

**(Save me from the things I see!)**

Only five goons were left and the now named Nero is seen running on the side of a building wall, avoiding heavy fire that was trailing behind him before jumping off and kicking one of them in the face, knocking them unconscious. Once his feet touches the ground, their rifles made clicking noises which meant that they ran out of ammo. They were persistent, however, as the remaining four transformed their firearms into swords.

**(I can keep it from the world,)**

**(Why won't you let me hide from me?)**

Once he was close enough, Nero began to clash his weapon with the remaining four White Fang members, pushing them back despite the advantage they have in numbers. One of them took a leap of faith and recklessly tries to slash him from behind, only to receive the scimitar's pommel to the face.

**(Mirror, mirror, tell me something,)**

**(Who's the loneliest of all?)**

Nero wasn't done with him, however, as he stabs the scimitar into the ground and quickly grabs the goon by the wrist. Using all of his strength, the white hair lifts the White Fang member into the air and starts flailing him around in a circle, hitting two grunts and knocking them out before slamming the one in his grip into the cement ground. The last goon trembled in fear and turned tail towards an alley. Quickly rearing back his right arm, Nero thrusts his hand forward and sent a blue spectral arm flying.

**(I'm the loneliest)**

Just before the goon could escape, the said transparent and glowing appendage grabs hold of the goon and pulled him towards the white hair. Once close enough, Nero used his Buster once again and slams the White Fang goon into the concrete ground. With the problem now dealt with, Nero quickly upturned his motorcycle and quickly made his way to White Castle Hall.

**(…of all)**

**[RWBY OST Ends]**

As the song ends, the audience began to applaud for the heiress' spectacular performance. Weiss opened her eyes and gazed up to the ceiling, seeing the shattered moon in all its beauty as snowflakes fluttered down through the skylight. Turning towards the audience, the heiress' eyes widened and her lips drew a smile as she saw a familiar face.

Among the audience Nero is seen sitting on the edge of the middle row, with his left foot on his right thigh and both his arms propped onto the backrest, the right one concealed with his glove and coat sleeve. He seemed winded somewhat, but immediately regains his composure and smiled back. Caught off guard, Weiss' face flushed red slightly as she looked away from the boy in embarrassment, but took another glance of Nero with a warm smile.

Facing forward, the heiress straightened her posture and did a curtsy, before white curtains closed the stage. Outside the building, the sound of the audience applauding could still be heard. However, an anonymous figure wearing a red coat is seen standing on top of a building a few blocks away. 

**_To be continued…_**


	2. The Party Crasher

**Chapter 1: The Party Crasher**

**White Castle Hall, Atlas Academy**

After Weiss' performance, a student representative of Atlas Academy took to the stage and walked up to the podium.

"Everyone give it up for Weiss Schnee!" he cheered, followed by the applause of the crowd in front of the stage. The skylight then began to close by a glass dome.

"Alright, thank you all so much for coming here tonight! Now before we proceed, I would like to announce that tonight's ceremony is made possible thanks to the Schnee Dust Co. for sponsoring tonight's event. And to show our gratitude, some of our more 'talented' students went ahead and created… THIS!"

Pointing behind him, a trap door opened on the floor as a 10-meter-tall marble statue of Jacques Schnee, CEO of the Schnee Dust Company, emerged from the opening. The statue stood tall and proud, with both its arms resting atop a cane. "This is for you, Mister Schnee!! Hope you love it!"

As the crowd cheered, Nero can be seen sitting amongst the crowd with his leg hooked over his knee and his left arm resting atop the backrest, listening to the music blaring from his headphones and not having the slightest bit of interest in the statue's unveiling.

Winter stood at the ready in front of the stage, along with her fellow squad of Atlesian soldiers beside her. The elder Schnee didn't like how Nero was behaving, so she sent an icy glare, one usually reserved for subordinates that screw up royally, his way.

But instead of falling under her gaze, Nero merely switched legs before returning the glare to his superior. She held the stare for a moment, but Winter was the first to break eye contact and turned her attention back to the stage, letting out an irritated sigh through her nose as she did so.

Moments after, Weiss came walking towards the male teen and was about to greet him, but he was quick to turn away from her and went out of his way to hold headphone cup up to his ear, seemingly in an effort to ignore her presence. Annoyed by Nero's behavior, the heiress was about to scold him, but held her tongue when her eyes fell upon a small box on the seat next to him.

The box was blue in color, tied with a white ribbon and had a small note that read 'CONGRATS~!!' attached to it. Picking it up, Weiss looked to Nero who still avoided her gaze, but held a smirk upon his lips. This drew a warm smile on the heiress' own before sitting right beside him, setting aside her briefcase near her feet.

Back on stage, the student representative was nearing the end of his speech, the only thing required of him now being to provide an introduction. "And now, a couple of words from General James Ironwood." He finished, gesturing toward the side of the stage.

A moment later, a man wearing a white military uniform began walking towards the podium with a stern look. His skin was pale, he had blue eyes and had a bit of grey in his black hair. Once he reached said podium, "Thank you, Mister Makai for that introduction. And once again, thank you all for coming to tonight's ceremony. Now like the years before—"

As General Ironwood droned on for a whole minute, Nero let out a sigh before rising from his seat, getting Weiss' attention.

"Nero, what's wrong…?" The heiress asked her longtime companion, a slightly confused tone in her voice.

"I'm out of here."

"But the general's not finished yet…!" Weiss pointed out, raising her voice as much as she could without rising above whispering.

"Exactly my point…" Nero replied casually and began to walk away. Worried that leaving prematurely might get him in trouble, Weiss made to stand and go after him. However, before the young man could take another step, his right arm illuminated with a faint blue glow, a peculiar sensation he'd never felt before resonating through it.

Feeling something amiss, his attention quickly snapped towards the general on stage, with Weiss' following soon after.

**_*CRASH*_**

Not a moment after they did this, a figure crashed through the dome skylight and landed right on top of the podium, catching the general by surprise. It was a man dressed in a red trench coat, red pants complemented by black, crotchless chaps, along with a black undervest and loafer shoes. Strapped to his back was a large claymore sword with a horned human skull decorating the sword guard.

A Grimm mask hid the anonymous individual's entire face, and the only visible trait that could be seen was his white hair. General Ironwood's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events, until he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. "Dan—"

**_*BANG*_**

Time seemed to have slowed down as General Ironwood's figure fell back and onto the cold stage floor. Both Weiss and Winter's expressions fell to that of shock, while a scowl formed on Nero's.

With one job done, the masked man stood tall upon the podium before turning to face the audience, eyes scanning his surroundings. An ear-piercing shriek awoke everyone from their stunned state, which in turn caused them to panic and rush towards the exit.

"GENERAL IRONWOOD!" Winter called out, immediately unsheathing her sabre, an action that was soon followed by the Atlesian soldiers. Protocol dictates that soldiers must use only their standard swords when facing an enemy with civilians still within range of battle.

Seeing the events unfold, Nero's instinct immediately kicked in and he began to lead Weiss out of the building.

Using her Semblance, Winter conjured a white Glyph underneath her and launched herself at the assassin with reckless abandon. Without even facing her, the general's assailant merely flipped over the human projectile and touched down on the stage.

Winter conjures several more glyphs as to disperse her momentum and manages to land at the general's side. "No…!"

"Put your hands up, _now_!" One of the soldiers said as they surrounded their enemy, their blades all trained on him, but unfortunately for them, the assassin wasn't having it.

Unsheathing his blade, the man in red gestured for them to come at him all at once. Ignoring his challenge, only one of the soldiers charges forth, but their swing was easily parried by the man and was quickly followed up by him slamming his foot into his back with a roundhouse kick. The force behind the blow was enough to send the hapless soldier rocketing towards the ring of men that surrounded him, sending them tumbling like a bunch of stooges.

The assassin made one thing clear with this nonchalant action; if they were to get in his way, he wasn't going to pull his punches.

"You bastard!" Incensed by this, the rest of the soldiers now opted to charge him all at once, their blades ready. However, their increase in numbers didn't help them in the slightest, for the assassin merely avoided the first slash that came his way with a perfectly timed sidestep, with the rest of the incoming attacks either being dodged or parried with his claymore, all with a casual air and demeanor about him as he did so.

One by one, their numbers dwindled as the assassin easily wiped the floor with Atlas' foot soldier, most of which lay dead on the floor. Now that they were fewer in numbers, our enigmatic swordsman opted to finish things off with a dash of flare and style that was second nature to him.

Grabbing one of his opponents, he drove his sword through their chest without mercy before effortlessly lifting both the sword and the soldier off the ground. Now wielding the weapon like a club, the assassin did a quick 360º degree spin and batted away the remaining soldiers, sending them flying and crashing into the walls of the amphitheater very, _very_ hard.

The impaled soldier soon slipped off from the blade and crashed into the ceiling. At the end of this cycle, the assassin whipped out a sawn off shotgun shotgun and shot Winter's back. The Specialist let out a cry of pain before getting shot again as the assassin approached the two military figures, reloading the scattergun with a simple flick of his wrist. Hearing her sister's distress, Weiss turned to see the state Winter was in.

"Winter!" she called out, leaving Nero's grasp not hesitating to come to her sister's aid. Opening the briefcase as she surged forth, Weiss brandished her custom rapier **_Myrtenaster_** before ditching the case entirely. She didn't bother loading the weapon with Dust, not when her sister was in danger.

As a desperate attempt, the elder Schnee sibling put up a glyph to shield herself and the general. The glyph was successful initially as each blast of buckshot failed to penetrate it, however, as he continued to approach, dark red energy began to gather into the assassin's forearm, soon surrounding his shotgun as well. Pulling the trigger, the shotgun blast increases in power as cracks began to form on the glyph each time the firearm thundered.

"You stay away from her!" Weiss roared in outrage, thrusting Myrtenaster forward. Without even looking, the masked assassin raised his other arm and opened his hand...

**_*SCHLICK*_**

An instant after hearing the sickening sound of squelching flesh, Weiss found herself unable to move Myrtenaster any further. With her adrenaline beginning to die down slightly, the heiress now had a better look at what stopped her blade, and her pale blue eyes widened at the sight of the man's impaled hand.

Her shock soon turned into an unpleasant weight of fear and dread that settled into her gut when she also noticed the blood that now stained her rapier and began to drip down to the floor. Gripping onto the guard of Myrtenaster and snapping his wrist back to force it out of her grip, the red-clad man turned towards her, not showing any indication of being in pain as he holstered his shotgun with an effortless twirl. Disarmed and faced with such an inhuman foe, Weiss could only take a slow step back. _'H-He… W-Why doesn't he—'_

Her train of thought was interrupted when the assassin backhanded her across the face, knocking her down and onto the cold stage floor.

Opting to switch targets, the red-clad man strode towards and stood before the ponytailed girl that lay on the ground. After recovering from the dull pain and disorientation she felt, Weiss looked up to find the assassin towering above her, which filled her with a sense of dread and helplessness.

**_*BANG*_**

The sound caused the heiress to flinch back in fear, eyes tightly shut and her mouth drawing heavy breaths. She genuinely thought the worst had happened to her, but that wasn't the case...

With his feet suddenly feeling cold out of nowhere after that gunshot, the assassin cast his gaze down to his legs, only to now notice that both of them were encased in thick sheets of ice. Not a moment too soon, the sounds of heavy boots and a shout that promised murder caught both their attention.

With a mighty leap, the soles of Nero's boots immediately slammed into the assassin's face in a brutal dropkick, the force of the blow shattering the ice and sending the offender careening up and over Winter. Landing in a crouch, Nero quickly takes aim with **Blue Rose** and fired two bullets at the fleeting figure. To avoid this, the man expertly maneuvered himself and bats away the bullets using his sword.

He lands atop the marble statue, stabbing his blade into the head as to anchor himself onto it. Nero was persistent however, boldly launching himself at the assassin once more and kicking the sword deeper into the head before he could even try to remove it.

Both landed on top of the monument's arms and took aim with their respective firearms; Nero with his double-barreled revolver and the assassin with two semi-auto pistols colored white and black.

"Nero—!" "Stay back, Weiss!" the boy cuts her off, as Winter went and stood in front to defend Weiss. "Go with your sister and get the general outta here!"

With a nod of confirmation, the elder Schnee twirled her sabre once before stabbing the ground. A glyph formed before the two siblings and within moments, a white Beringel Grimm emerged from it. The entity resembled a gorilla of muscular stature, most of its body covered in bone armor as well as its face.

The Specialist pointed it to the general and the summoned Grimm was quick to comply with her request. Approaching Ironwood's unconscious body, the summon carried the general under its arm before leaping back to its Master.

"I will return with reinforcements. Keep him occupied in the meantime!" she ordered before grabbing Weiss and began leading them out. Before the ensuing battle began, a confident smirk graced the teenager's lips. "I won't hold my breath, Ice Queen…" he muttered, shrugging off his still-playing headphones.

With nothing loose and restrictive to hamper his movement, the action soon escalated. Firing another shot at his head, the assassin easily ducked under the bullets. Following this up with another shot aimed at his feet, he leapt up from his position and high into the air towards him, both his arms spread out in a pose that faintly reminded Nero of something he'd see out of an old kung-fu flick.

"EYAAAAH!!!" Regardless, Nero was quick to jump up after the assassin, maneuvering himself with both his legs spread so that when he slammed into his opponent, he could wrap his legs around his waist to balance himself.

With the both of them at arm's length, the two white-haired individuals quickly began to trade shots at close quarters, with Nero dodging the shots that came his way and even biting onto the slide of one of his pistols to redirect another shot. Realizing just how dicey this position was, the Atlesian specialist maneuvered his legs and wrapped them around his opponent's in an attempt to place him in a submission hold in mid-air. Unfortunately, the man in red was easily able to get him off with a blast to his chest with his shotgun.

"AH!" The blast sent Nero crashing and tumbling to the ground, but he was able to stumble back to his feet with his revolver pointed towards the ceiling. Seeing that the assassin had landed on the head of the statue and was trying to pull his claymore out from the head, Nero was quick to react. Leaping back up into the air and towards the assassin, the hot-headed young man sent a powerful kick into the sword before the assassin could dislodge it from the statue, consequently sending it twirling up into the air with the assassin leaping upwards beforehand to avoid being flayed with his own weapon… as well as utterly decimating the stone Jacques' face into an unrecognizable stony mess.

Frankly, Nero thought that last part was an improvement on the original design.

Regardless, Nero didn't have the time currently to properly appreciate his handiwork as he landed between the statue's cane and chest, jamming his foot outward to keep himself from tumbling down to the bottom. Unfortunately for him, however, after easily grabbing onto his errant sword at the peak of his jump, the masked assassin slammed himself down towards Nero, his sword poised to cleave him in two.

Reacting quickly, Nero blocked using Blue Rose's barrel, but the sheer force behind the blow still sent him tumbling down between the statue's cane and main body. Quickly jamming his foot out to the cane to stop himself from falling further, Nero looked upwards to see the smug bastard standing at the top of the statue's hands with his arms crossed and his sword sheathed.

"rrrrRRAGGGGH!!!" **_*Cruuugh…!*_** Not needing to see his face to know there was a smug smile behind that mask, Nero decided to wipe that expression off by slamming his other foot into the cane and pushing outward with all his strength. The strength behind Nero's push was more than enough to separate the cane from the statue and send it steadily falling down to the ground.

Before it could even crash into the ground, however, Nero didn't hesitate to sprint up the falling statue piece and towards his target, and the moment he got within arm's length, he fired another shot at his head, only for him to effortlessly dodge it and pull out his own pistols once more.

Leaping back just before the stone cane his the ground, the two of them launched themselves backwards and away from one another after two of their bullets collided with one another.

Landing on his feet, Nero kept his revolver trained on the man in red, who merely stood a good distance away and looked at him, silently appraising him.

From there, in a moment of stark contrast to the bombastic and extravagant action that took place, a moment of tense silence overtook the stage. Nero saw the way his opponent's hands hovered over his pistol's holsters and knew that he was waiting for him to make the first move, just as he was for him. Growing irritated with how this bastard was matching him blow-for-blow, the hot-headed youth only had this to say. "You got a jacked up notion of fair play, pal… _and it's beginning to piss me off._"

.

.

.

.

.

.

**_"DRAW!" _**Nero exclaimed after a tense moment of silence that would make most gunslingers in an old western flick proud, pulling the trigger just as the red-clad assassin whipped out his pistols and fired both of them. Once again, in a moment of incredulous happenstance, the four bullets collided into one another and cancelled each other out perfectly.

With neither party being surprised by this, they began to unload on one another as they slowly circled each other, both Blue Rose and the man's pistols firing at an inhuman firing rate, even for someone augmented by aura. Just like the first shot, every bullet they fired collided into each other without fail, creating a scenario where the first person to falter in their firing rate would be the loser and consequently get filled with white-hot lead.

As he fired, Nero was able to keep up with the man's machine-gun like pace in which he fired, despite merely having a revolver, by using his recently acquired… _abilities_ to channel power into his shots that negated the need to reload.

This stalemate continued for another moment, with Nero oblivious to the smirk that was growing under the assassin's mask. Suddenly, things came to a halt when the man leapt up into the air once more with that dark-red energy once again crackling around his arms. Firing another stream of shots mid-air that Nero returned fire on, he was in for a sore surprise when the empowered bullets from the man's pistols tore through his own bullets at a rate he couldn't keep up with.

Letting out a yelp of pain, Nero was sent reeling back as the bullets tore into him. As he recovered from the attack, the assassin took this opportunity to leap onto one of the corpses he made before their fight began. The youth was left confused by what he was doing, but didn't have any time to question it before pushed one of his feet forward on the ground like he was standing on a skateboard rather than a dead body.

"_WHOO-HOO-HOO-_**_HOO~!"_** The end result of this action was the assassin careening towards Nero while riding on a corpse that was sliding across the floor like it was painstakingly waxed. To further complicate matters, the man pulled out his dual pistols and began to unload their bullets as he flew, letting out gleeful whoops and cheers as he did so.

Letting out a groan of annoyance at this, Nero was quick to dodge any incoming bullets before leaping over the careening assassin just as he and his makeshift skateboard flew towards him. What he didn't count on, however, was the assassin leaping off the corpse just as Nero reached the peak of his jump and blasting him point-blank with his shotgun.

"Rrrgh! Eat **_THIS!_****_" _**At the peak of his frustration with this infuriating man, Nero decided to pay him back with interest for that attack as he rolled into a crouching position. Before the assassin could think to react, he was blasted in the waist by a shot from Blue Rose that Nero somehow managed to empower in a manner similar to his own charged blasts, proof of this being the case being the vivid blue energy that overtook his right arm and revolver.

Unlike the man in red's empowered shots, which just seemed to be regular bullets but with a little… 'something' added to them to give them a bit more punch, Nero's powered-up magnum rounds set themselves apart due to the fact that the moment they connected with him, a fiery blue explosion enveloped the man, sending him flying back several feet before he slid into a standing position. Drawing both his pistols and aiming them sideways, he was about to return fire but was left puzzled when he noticed Nero had his right hand raised, closing his fingers individually like he was counting down to something.

_'...Three, two, one,'_ Nero counted down in his head, and the moment he lowered that final finger and clenched his hand into a fist, another explosion ripped through the assassin, sending him flying up into the air. Not one to squander his opportunities, Nero was quick to unload more regular rounds from Blue Rose into him, taking bitter satisfaction as the bullets tore into him and kept him juggled in the air.

_'Think I need a bit more bang for my buck!'_ Firing one last shot, Nero whipped open Blue Rose's chamber and empties out it's bullet casings. Throwing his specially made **_color up rounds_** into the air, he twirled once and timed it so that all the bullets fell perfectly into the chamber.

Finishing the rotation, the chamber snapped back in as Nero takes his aim, only to find his opponent out of sight.

The building was quiet for a moment, only for it to be shattered by the sound of footsteps from behind him. The assassin came into view and had his blade resting on his shoulder, admiring the destruction they both caused and seemingly unphased by the hits he landed on him.

With a sigh, Nero lowered his gun. "I guess this doesn't quite cut it." He muttered before kicking Weiss' case to the assassin. As soon as the luggage was within range, he took aim with Blue Rose once more and shot it.

Since the case still had vials of Dust in them, they reacted to the bullets' impact and exploded in the assassin's face, shooting fire, lightning and other Dust types in all directions, creating a smokescreen.

Seeing his chance, Nero kicked up two standard Atlesian swords into the air, one higher up than the other. As the first lands into his hand, the teen swiped his scroll over the scanner, which caused the blue lights to turn red.

The second sword fell on the first's backside moments and seemed to lock in place, the light on the blade turning red as well. With the two now fused, he threw them high in the air once again.

He then kicked up another sword that was impaled on the floor behind him and swiped another just beside him. Spinning once, Nero slammed the fourth sword onto the third's back, which caused the handles combine as the blades locked in place as well.

The first of the fused swords fell behind him seconds later and with a twirl of his hand, slams the second of the swords into the first, transforming the blades into a claymore.

As the smoke cleared, the assassin finally saw the new sword his opponent wielded. Red energy crackled across the blade as Nero scowled at the assassin.

"What's the point of packin' a sword like that if you aren't even gonna use it?!" he challenged, realizing the masked man wasn't taking him seriously. _'A lot lighter than Red Queen… but it'll do for now.'_

The man took a moment to look at his sword for a moment. Seconds later, places the sword tip on the floor and mimicked Nero's pose, taunting him.

Incensed by his taunts, Nero charged forth with his new blade in hand. From there, the action soon shifted from extravagant gunplay to a storm of swords between the two white-haired warriors.

It was during this flurry of blades that an outside observer would be given a front-row seat to the two's swordplay styles and just how they differed despite several of their techniques being quite similar in function. Nero's fighting style consisted of a series of one-handed, vicious swings with his left hand. That last part was actually a recent development that only occurred during the same time the young man got his right arm bandaged up. Fortunately, being ambidextrous made this a nonissue that only took a bit of time to get used to. These swings and the various techniques that came with them showcased both a staggering amount of power and the fact that Nero clearly threw his weight and anger around while fighting.

The assassin's swordplay, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. While Nero's swordplay was easily leagues above most swordsmen on Remnant, it looked outright sloppy compared to the assassin's, who fought with a series of two and one-handed swings and strikes that radiated a combination of power, speed, and brutal grace.

With this in mind, it was to be expected that while they started off clashing swords blow-for-blow and evenly matched, that the assassin steadily began to gain more and more ground on Nero. The young man was strong, but his opponent was as well, if not even stronger, and had a far more poised fighting style compared to his. Soon enough, Nero found himself sloppily and desperately blocking blow after blow from the man's claymore as he got pushed back step after step.

**_*TING!*_**

It soon reached the point that a hasty, misplaced swing on Nero's part was all it took for the assassin to parry the blade out of the youth's hands, sending him stumbling back and open for a riposte. Speeding towards him with that claymore poised to impale him, Nero reacted instinctively and brought up his bandaged right arm to prevent the sword from piercing his chest.

_*FWOOM!*_

However, rather than separating Nero's forearm from the rest of his body, the block instead stopped the blade and it's wielder dead in his tracks, the force of the blow creating a powerful shockwave that sent the tossed over chairs and debris around them, flying everywhere.

_"Hmm, looks like you got a trick up your sleeve..."_ The red clad assassin finally spoke, his tone conveying a strange mixture of knowing and curiosity as he took in Nero's right arm, which lost the bandaging that concealed it's appearance in the ensuing shockwave.

The only word to properly describe Nero's right arm was demonic. Red scales covered the entirety of the exposed appendage, while the palm and the star-like crack on the backhand glowed neon blue. This was all topped off by pointed, neon blue fingers that slightly evoked claws.

_"I thought the cat had your tongue…"_ Nero growled, peering over his arm to send a murderous glare his opponent's way. "but if it's a trick you're looking for…" Without warning, a ghostly arm, resembling a spectral version of Nero's right arm, materialized out of thin air and grabbed the assassin by the arm.

"THEN TRY _THIS_!" With a firm shove, the man in red was sent careening towards the now damaged statue of Weiss' father, but still managed to land on his feet a grunt.

"Looks like you too are a..." he began, only to be cut short when Nero suddenly let out a roar and used the ghostly version of his arm to hurl statue Jacque's cane at him. Seeing this, the man in red merely leaned back a bit as the object passed by him and subsequently destroyed a large portion of the statue's left leg.

He looked to the monument and was impressed by the sheer power the teenager possessed, turning back to see his opponent land in front of the stage, his demonic arm now on full display. "Hate to interrupt, but I wanna wrap this shitshow up before the cavalry arrives!" Nero stated as he dusted off his hand and rolled his right shoulder. And with that said, the hot-headed youth didn't hesitate to charge the assassin and back into the fray.

Since he was only fighting with his bare hands, you'd think that the assassin's previous advantage over the teen would persist, but that wasn't the case. In fact, Nero was able to hold his own quite well now that his right arm was revealed, blocking and even outright parrying the man in red's sword swings with his demonic arm with ease before delivering punches that hit like a truck. _'__Guess Ironwood's training actually paid off…'_

In another exchange of blows, Nero parried the assassin's swing, which gave him the opportunity to perform a move he called Buster. As he swung his demonic arm up in an uppercut motion, the spectral arm from before materialized once again and grabbed the assassin by the throat, to which Nero proceeded to mercilessly slam him to the ground.

The sheer force behind the action left cracks on the floor where the assassin impacted, but he wasn't done yet. Releasing his hold, Nero backed up a bit before delivering a brutal and powerful kick that sent the man careening off the stage, resembling a soccer player performing a penalty kick.

The man lost his grip on his claymore and was sent crashing into a cluster of folded chairs. But as he continued to tumble about, by some miracle, the chairs stood up right and were lined perfectly as the man in red laid on top on his side, posing like a model for a pin-up magazine.

Upon seeing this, the teen's scowl only deepened at this man's antics. Once again, Nero didn't need to see his face to know the assassin must've had some infuriatingly coy or playful grin on his face. _'__Smug son of a bitch… He's enjoying this!'_

As he lazed back on the chairs, the man in red saw his sword falling towards him and didn't hesitate to hold up his arm towards it, grabbing it by the handle effortlessly. "So you're lookin' to play, huh?" he asked, sitting up as he gazed upon his claymore, seemingly appraising how he looked with the mask in the sword's reflection. "Alright, I guess I got some time to kill…"

After taking a moment to process the assassin's words, Nero saw his temporary sword impaled on the stage floor to his left. Approaching the blade, he pulled it out of the ground. "Tough guy, huh? Well…"

Putting strength into his leg, Nero kicked a sizeable chunk of statue Jacque at the man in red, prompting him to jump in order to avoid the projectile. But as he did so, Nero was already up in the air with his blade drawn.

Their swords clashed twice as they passed one another, and as the assassin touched down on the floor, he couldn't stop the look of amusement from creeping onto his face as he saw just what became of his opponent.

While you could certainly say a great many negative things about an impulsive, hot-headed, and quick to anger youth such as Nero, you certainly couldn't say he was lacking in a sense of style. As it turned out, the impact caused by the statue chunk crashing into the cluster of chairs somehow created a colossal mountain of the steel chairs that was half-way up towards the ceiling that looked about as stable as a jenga tower, with Nero sitting at the very top of these chairs with an undeniably proud and pleased smile on his face. In his left hand, resting on his shoulder was his sword.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to take you down a couple notches." The youth boasted, his expression and tone making it clear he felt he successfully one-upped his fellow white-head in terms of style just now.

"Heh. Whatever you say, kid~." The man chuckled, his tone making it clear he'd been having a lot of fun and merriment fighting against Nero. Letting out a few muted chuckles himself, the young man instinctively wiped his nose with his forearm before leaping off from his haphazard throne and in the direction of the assassin.

The man in red kicked a chair at him, but the act did not deter Nero in the slightest. In retaliation, the teen easily swiped the chair in midair with his right hand and threw it back.

The assassin jumped back to avoid the furniture as it bounced off the floor, to which Nero grinned at. As soon as he lands, the teen parried a sword strike from the man in red. With a spin, Nero grabs hold of the still airborne chair and smacked the assassin across the face with it.

This genuinely took the assassin by surprise. Who in their right mind would fight someone using a chair? This kid, apparently. Capitalizing on this, Nero rushed the man with a series of quick and brutal blows from Red Queen. The man was able to deftly parry every blow that came his way with his claymore, but he was nevertheless forced onto the defensive as every swing he blocked forced him to take a step back. He was then sent several feet back when Nero opted to shake things up a bit by tossing the chair up between them and using that brief instant where his right hand was free to deliver another brutal punch with his demonic limb.

The man was able to block the spectral punch from slamming into him with the flat end of his claymore, but once again, the force behind that limb's power was so great that it nevertheless sent him sliding back several feet.

"Sheesh, you're a pushy one, arentcha?" The assassin asked rhetorically, a coy tone in his voice as he slid back. His response to this taunt came in the form of that folding chair slamming into his face with what felt like the force of a motorcycle.

As the unexpected hit sent the assassin stumbling back, both reality and physics once again went out of the way to accommodate these stylish combatants when the chair hit the floor completely unfolded and on it's feet, facing Nero. Without skipping a beat, Nero followed this up by sprinting up to and leaping off the back of the chair, shifting into the motions required for another dropkick just as the assassin recovered and looked up… only to be greeted with a pair of boots he'd become _very_ well-acquainted with today once again slamming into his face.

Just like before, the force of Nero's dropkick sent the assassin flying and crashing into what was left of the statue of Jacques, his claymore spinning to the ground just beside the youth with it's tip embedded in the ground. Wasting no time, Nero grabbed the handle of the sword with his right arm and threw it like a spear at the assassin before he could even start descending towards the ground.

**_*SPLICH!*_** _"Hrk-! Ahh..."_

And like that, the entire amphitheater went eerily quiet as the assassin went limp, his claymore having run through his chest and embedded itself in the demolished statue. The only sounds that pervaded and broke the quiet were the periodic drops of blood that fell from the claymore and onto the marble floor, and Nero's labored breathing as he tried to recompose himself after such an intense battle.

However, with the adrenaline rush beginning to wear down, another look at the assassin's corpse caused what Nero just did to really sink in for him. Wincing at the visceral sight he created, all the youth could think to do now that the deed was done was drop his sword and bring his left hand up to his forehead.

"..._Shit_. I overdid it again…" He groaned, turning away from the body and towards the amphitheater's exit. He could only mentally prepped himself for whatever furious lecture Winter had in mind for him after going overboard in combat again.

"Getting better..." a familiar voice echoed as it stood up, surprising Nero as he looked back.

"In fact… I would even go as far as to say that I underestimated your…" the assassin stops himself for a moment as he begins pushing himself off the statue, visibly feeling the pain as he and the sword moved forward.

"..._abilities_." He finished, dropping to the floor just as Nero pulled out Blue Rose, the sword still embedded the assassin's chest. "What the hell are you?" the youth demanded, revolver still drawn.

The assassin looked to his chest and let out a frustrated sigh, muttering something along the lines of 'Every goddamn time…' before palming both sides of the blade and beginning to pull it out. Despite the copious sprays of blood that flew out with every tug, the grunts he made as he did so only indicat mild annoyance at most.

"We're the same. Both you, and… **_*TING*_** _I_." he replied as he pulled out the blade and settled the tip on the floor. His words confused Nero, but he didn't allow that to distract him.

"Can't say the same about these guys though… they're a whole 'nother breed entirely." He added and gestured to the bodies of dead soldiers all around them. The young man turned to where the assassin pointed, and were shocked at what he saw. He was pointing towards a soldier that had his helmet destroyed during the struggle, but everything about his face was wrong and unnatural.

The soldier's face was pale, so much so that he resembled a day old corpse, and had eyes that gave out an unnatural red glow as well as black veins running down the sides of his face. "What the hell…?"

"You're lucky those three from earlier weren't like them. These guys are hard to find these days..." The assassin pointed out before jumping up and landing onto the ledge of the shattered skylight. "What are you talking about?" he demanded answers, but the assassin ignored him.

"You'll come to learn the meaning in time… But for now, business beckons." The assassin finished and turns to leave.

"HEY!" Nero yelled, taking another shot at him. For a moment the assassin was nowhere to be seen, but then his head popped up from the edge of the skylight. "Adios, kid~!" he bid farewell and took his leave. Nero wanted to give chase, but then heard footsteps coming from the entrance.

He turned and aimed Blue Rose when the door slammed open, only to lower it after realizing it was his superior, Winter Schnee. She arrived at his side quickly but cautiously, her saber drawn at a moments notice. "Where is he?" she asked her subordinate.

"You just missed him, up and left through the roof..." he replied and gestured toward the skylight. With that said, Winter pulled out her scroll and contacted headquarters.

"Command, this is Specialist Winter Schnee. The assassin has escaped. I need all air and ground units mobilized to perform a search of the entire city." The Specialist requested and received approval not long after. Pocketing her scroll, Winter resheathes her saber and turned towards the younger silver hair. "He couldn't have gotten far."

"Not unless he reaches the city limit and decides to jump…" he answered, voice dripping with sarcasm. With a fancy twirl, the teen returned Blue Rose to its holster, letting out a sigh of relief. 'Then again… if he can shrug off a sword to the chest like it's nothing, who's to say a several thousand feet drop would phase him?'

"Were you injured…?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. Though…" Nero trailed off as he looked down to his ruined attire, his right coat sleeve torn and riddled with bullet holes, and that's not even touching upon how his formerly pristine white coat, which was synonymous with the Atlesian military, was stained with both his blood, the assassin's, and various bullet holes. Miraculously, the only piece of clothing that managed to survive his fight was his red scarf.

"Looks like I'll be paying the tailor a visit tomorrow." Nero thought aloud before he noticed Winter's gaze on his right arm. Under normal circumstances, seeing someone aware of his unnatural appendage would be cause for the youth to try and hide it from their gaze, along with a defensive, quick to anger attitude showing, but… Winter was an exception to this. She was both aware of this change in his arm from the beginning and someone that, for all the annoyances and bullshit she sent his way, he deeply trusted.

"Reinforcements will be arriving not much longer, so…" The specialist began, the way her eyes fell upon his scarf before drifting back to his arm being all the indication he needed.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Nero replied before unravelling the red scarf around his neck. Once he did, Nero took one end of the scarf in his right hand and began to wrap the cloth around his demonic arm. However, after he finishes, the scarf unraveled itself and revealed his arm once more.

"Ugh, stupid… Come on…" Nero muttered under his breath as he tried to rewrap his arm, but failed once again. "Dammit!"

Seeing him struggle with such an easy task, Winter lets out a soft sigh and approaches the young man. "Here, let me do it…" She offered to help. Nero wanted to decline, but Winter took the scarf in hand before he could even respond and started to wrap his arm in it. Naturally, the boy felt uncomfortable and scanned the area to see if anyone was looking.

"I'm not a kid, you know…" Nero grumbled, his tone and the way his cheeks lit up ever so slightly making his embarrassment and discomfort clear. "Yet you can't properly wrap your arm with your own scarf." She retorted, and as much as he loathed to admit it, Nero couldn't think of a proper retort.

Once Winter was done, the teenager's scarf was neatly wrapped around his hand and forearm, completely hiding the red-scaled appendage. "Thanks... I guess…" Was all Nero could manage to say once the deed was done, looking anywhere but at Winter.

"You're welcome. Come, the others will expect us to wait at the entrance…" Winter informed him and began walking towards the exit. Nero inspects his concealed arm for a moment before letting the said appendage fall to his side and following his superior.

**To be continued...**

**XxXxX**

**AN:** **_Well, this is it for now. Sorry it took so long to update, I needed the assistance of my beta-reader in order to make this chapter give a good impression on the site._**

**_Major thanks and credit to my beta-reader _lolrus555_ for proofreading and coming up with most of the fight scenes for this chapter, you guys should check him out!_**


	3. After-Party Resolution

**AN: Greetings, Reader. Before you start reading this chapter, allow me to apologize for how long it took me to update this fanfic. Life has been throwing some curve balls at me after the last chapter was uploaded, having to deal with Writer's Block, getting my driver's license and getting sick on New Year's... But anyway, I'm getting off track.**

**Also****, a friendly reminder, if there those of you who are unfamiliar with any of the franchise in this story, fret not about lore dumping. We'll try our best to explain things through 3F1S, if you're still willing to follow this silly little fanfic of mine. So, I hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 2: After-Party Resolution**

**Alsius City, North District**,

After getting the job done, the man in red made it his mission to reach the city limits so he could make his exit from this frosty part of the world. Of course, after what he just pulled, it went without saying that he ran into some heavy opposition in the process. Military-issued bullheads were sent out to apprehend the assassin by whatever means necessary, which explained the thundering roar of gun turret fire that was heard throughout the city earlier that same night.

High-caliber bullets had ripped through the solid concrete of multiple office buildings. Not a single soul occupied the buildings during the skirmish, fortunately, but the damages sustained would certainly put a dent in the kingdom's wealth.

It took a while, but the man in red managed to give the military the slip, though not in the traditional sense of the word. _'Better hope they had insurance on those things… Aah, who am I kidding? This is Atlas we're talkin' about, they'll just buy new ones.'_ He thought airily to himself as he jumped down the building he stood upon.

Landing in a crouch, the red-clad man was currently located at the edge of Atlas' northern city. The plan was to come here and escape with a getaway bullhead after finishing the job, but no such aircraft could be found there. After giving the area another look over, he couldn't help but voice his confusion. "Huh, weird… Coulda sworn she said to meet up he—" 

**_*WHIIIIIR* *RATATATATATA*_**

His words were interrupted when a bullhead flew overhead and began raining bullets upon him. The assassin flipped out of harm's way before whipping out of his pistols, an annoyed frown forming underneath his mask. "Oh come on! How many of these things do they even have?"

As the ship came down with another bullet sweep, the cargo door opened and revealed two figures. The short one willingly jumped out of the aircraft, while the taller one stayed onboard and adopted an archer stance. The one that exited the aircraft whipped out two large pistols and immediately started shooting to intercept the masked assassin.

To avoid the incoming bullets, the man in red rolled and flipped out of the line of fire. However an arrow of ice stuck itself at his feet as soon as he landed before exploding, coating his legs in thick sheets of ice.

"Again? Seriously, what's this whole kingdom's deal with ice?" he complained to himself. The sound of his second opponent landing caught the man in red's attention and when he turned, he was surprised to see them wielding a bazooka, its rocket having a face resembling that of a cartoon shark.

With determination in their eyes, they didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. Seeing the incoming rocket, the assassin could only utter a few words. "Well, this feels familiar—" 

**_*BOOM!*_**

Before he could finish, a large explosion erupted as smoke covered the area where the assassin once stood. The figure slowly stood back up and morphed her RPG back into its base pistol form.

The individual appeared to be a petite young girl with blonde hair and green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a blue beret and a sleeveless blue and white blouse that reached down over her thighs, and bared her shoulders and upper back in a V-shape. Two diamond-shaped silver pieces hanged on the bottom of the blouse.

She also wore a detached white collar with a red tie, and blue, detached sleeves that are a little longer over the shoulder held in place by a silver metal armband pushed up to her upper arm. This look was all topped off by white gloves with gold on the back, black thigh-high socks and blue steel-toed infantry boots, which bore gold trimmings and a gold cross along the tongue of the boots.

"Command, this is Lieutenant Noel Vermillion of the 4th Atlesian squadron reporting in. I have engaged the enemy." the girl -now known to us as Noel- reported using her earpiece.

_"Be careful, lieutenant! That man went toe-to-toe with Specialist Rodin. He didn't pull his punches, and he won't hesitate with you either…"_

Heeding her superior's warning, Noel ended the call and started taking cautious steps toward the smoke screen, her weapons drawn at the ready. The bullhead she boarded earlier hovered over the building, and because of this, the smoke began to waver and clear out the area before a familiar mask emerged from the dark cloud.

The lieutenant was quick to trigger and didn't hesitate to unload several rounds at the figure, filling the cold air with the sound of gunfire. When the smoke dispersed completely however, it revealed the assassin's sword stabbed into the concrete floor, with the Grimm mask hung on the horned-human skull.

"What? Where did he—!?" 

**_*BANG! BANG!*_**

Two almost simultaneous shots rang out from the far left side of the building, where the man in red could be seen under the pale moonlight with his guns raised. The bullets whizzed through the air and were barrelling towards their destined target. Fortunately however, a blue sheathed sword batted the bullets away before they could hit the lieutenant. Flinching in surprise at what just happened, Noel could only take in the figure standing before her that deflected the bullets.

Standing before Noel was a young man with short blonde hair and green eyes very similar to her own. His uniform consisted of a fancy sleeveless blue coat with red lining and gold trimmings, along with a sleeveless white tunic secured at the waist with three black belts. His arms were covered with thick, long, white gloves that went up to his elbows. Long blue strips of cloth are attached to his coat's forearms that reached his knees, which looked more like unnecessary accessories than anything of practical-use.

The young man also wore blue, steel-toed infantry boots, which bore gold trimmings and a gold cross along the tongue of the boots. Completing the outfit was the katana that was gripped in the young man's left hand. 

**BlazBlue OST - Imperial Code I**

"Major Kisaragi!" Noel exclaimed, a combination of relief and gratitude in her tone. However, her savior was in a considerably less cheery mood.

"How many times do I have to remind you to ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings, Lieutenant?" The young man known as Major Kisaragi reprimanded his subordinate, causing her to flinch up and look down at the ground.

"R-Right, I'm sorry!" Noel apologized, but went ignored since he was too focused on the enemy.

The assassin hopped down from where he stood and took several steps forward, giving the two a good look at him. The assassin had the face of a man that just entered their forties, possessing a stubble that was barely noticeable and pale blue eyes. "Heh, a little bit overboard with the rocket back there, don'tcha think? Hell, I'd even argue that qualifies for police brutality."

"Our superiors deemed it necessary to incapacitate targets such as yourself, but that is no longer the case… You have nowhere else to run, scum. As major of the 4th Atlesian Military squadron, you now are under arrest! Any show of resistance… **_*PSSST*_** will prove fatal." The teen warned as his blade's scabbard automatically unscrewed its handguard and let out a short hiss, but the assassin merely chuckled at the threat.

"Fatal, huh?" the assassin said before smiling in amusement and holstering his firearms. "You know what? Why the hell not. After the fiasco with that kid in the academy earlier, I could go for another round…" With that said, he decided to humor the blonde major and unstrapped his claymore.

The threat worried Noel, however. "But Jin… I-I mean, Major, our orders are to capture him."

"This man single-handedly massacred the security team assigned to White Castle amphitheatre. Someone capable of such a feat is clearly a threat to Atlas. Besides…" Jin paused as he analyzed the assassin from head to toe, in particular noticing how his demeanor was completely casual and relaxed. More than that even… it was completely lackadaisical. This man wasn't taking him or his threats seriously in the slightest. This realization caused Jin to tighten his grip on his katana before scowling. "Just looking at him is grating on my nerves."

With that said, Major Jin Kisaragi began to slowly approach his opponent with a look that could freeze hell itself, while the assassin let out a chuckle, placing the tip of his claymore on the ground. "Alright then. So, are we goin' one-on-one or—" 

**_*BANG! BANG! BANG!*_**

His words were cut short by Lieutenant Noel's sudden gunfire, as the bullets whizzed through the air and were barreling towards him. A smirk formed on the assassin's lips before he both figuratively and quite literally danced around the lieutenant's bullets. As this was happening, Major Jin Kisaragi was already within 20 meters of where the assassin's currently stood.

Seeing the final bullet fired, the man in red swung his sword in an attempt to bat it away, only to find the action useless when the bullets somehow phased through his blade. Reacting quickly, the assassin managed to lift his arm fast enough so that the bullet hit his forearm.

He expected the bullet to bounce off his aura like how they always do, but this time was different. The .45 caliber round somehow managed to bypass his aura, and went straight through, continuing on its journey as if nothing had disturbed its trajectory!

_'What the hell?'_ was the only thought that crossed his mind. Only when it reached the assassin's shoulder did the bullet finally make contact, bypassing his aura again before finally breaking his skin and causing damage. However, it was worth noting that the man just looked more confused with the fact that the bullet actually hit him rather than in any actual pain.

"Finally!" Noel, however, didn't notice this and was more just pleased that she finally managed to hit her opponent. Fancily twirling her firearms, the lieutenant topped this off by clicking her guns together with confidence before shouting, "_DETONATE__!_" 

**_*BOOM!*_**

A large explosion engulfed the red-cladded assassin's entire being, blocking the blonde haired duo's view of their target. "Major, now's your chance!" The lieutenant urged her superior, only to get scolded by the katana-wielder.

"Do NOT order me to do my job, lieutenant!" Regardless of his annoyance, the major wasn't one to turn down an advantage and used this chance to charge straight at his opponent. The man in red was quick to recover from the detonation, however, as he proceeded to dodge all of Jin's onslaught of attacks as if the explosion didn't faze him.

In contrast to the assassin's fighting style, Jin's movements were quick and precise. He drew his sword so fast, in fact, that the blade seemed to leave it's sheathe for only a fraction of a second. The pace of Jin's quick-draws forced the man in red to fight defensively, but not enough to actually cause him to panic. 

**_"ROYALGUARD!"_**

Despite the inhuman speed the major displayed, the man did not sustain any damage, with the reason for this being that every time a hit was about to land, a barrier would appear to block the sword from cleaving him in half. It didn't help that the assassin kept posing with every successful block, which added to Jin's ever increasing irritation.

During this exchange, a smile grew on the assassin's lips, amused at the teenager's skill with a katana. This duel honestly gave the man in red a sense of nostalgia, having fought a certain katana-wielder in the past whose skill far outclassed his current opponent.

"HAH!"

With a yell, Jin decided enough was enough as he held his sword in reverse-grip, raised it to the air and immediately stabbed it into the concrete ground. A large ice glacier formed before the major and was fast approaching the red-cladded assassin. Reacting quickly, the man jumped back to avoid the formation, whipping out his guns.

The assassin was about to let loose upon the fast-forming glacier, but was interrupted when he saw the lieutenant jump from the highest point of the glacier. With a flip, Noel took aim and rained bullets upon her target.

The assassin learned from his mistake earlier, quickly dodging the bullets fired from the lieutenant's guns. He was positive that phase-through ability wasn't her semblance, the power the bullet emitted felt different from something charged with Aura. The lieutenant gracefully landed in a crouch before sprinting off towards her opponent.

As she engaged the red-clad assassin, Noel displayed a mix of hand-to-hand and close-quarters gunplay. She rushed the man in red with quick jabs using her guns, pulling the trigger whenever there was an opening. However, the assassin, once again acting as though he was several steps ahead of them, countered this by merely using his own pistols to jab her Bolverk out of the way just before she fired, throwing every bullet off course as he whooped and cheered like a kid having the time of his life.

_'His combat skills are incredible, but I'm not giving up yet…!'_ Noel thought, refusing to surrender. During this exchange, the meek girl's thoughts drifted towards the briefing she got regarding the man's attempted assassination of the General. She couldn't help but feel guilty for not arriving at the event sooner. This guilt was also mixed with an increased determination to capture him.

With her determination increased, the lieutenant morphed her guns mid-swing as to throw off the assassin, wielding her weapon in its shotgun form now. Noel continued her assault on the man in red while twirling the firearm like one would with a short bo staff, and would cock it mid-swing before taking a shot whenever an opportunity presented itself. The change in combat style certainly surprised the assassin, but it was one that he welcomed.

"Fast, easy on the eyes, AND a kickass weapon? You're just the full package, aren'tcha little lady?" he whistled, clearly impressed with Noel's performance even if he'd managed to effortlessly counter everything she threw his way. They traded several more blows before they ended up in a weapon-lock, with the assassin using the lock to intrude on Noel's personal space, much to her surprise. "Times like these really make me wish I was a decade or two younger."

That coy, playful remark immediately caused Noel to seize up in the exchange, her eyes widening and a thick red blush now plastered onto her face. She was so taken aback by this out of nowhere remark that she only barely managed to dodge a shot from the man's pistols aimed right between her eyes, leaping back to give herself a bit of breathing room.

"P-P-PLEASE DON'T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT WHILE WE'RE FIGHTING!" Noel exclaimed in clear embarrassment, as shown by how her face went completely scarlet at the playful man's flirtations.

She was so flustered by this, in fact, that she was oblivious to how the man's hands were beginning to be surrounded by a crackling black and red energy, just like back in the amphitheater against Nero.

Regardless, she punctuated this exclamation with another blast from Bolverk's shotgun form. Unfortunately, the assassin easily anticipated this and swerved around and behind her, letting out another gleeful whoop at how the gun's blast just barely missed him. Staggered by how her opponent was literally right behind her, Noel was quick to try and turn around and get a bead on her quick-moving and dodging opponent. However, in what was clearly becoming a running theme in this fight, the red-clad assassin anticipated this and countered by bumping his rear back against her own. The surprising level of force behind the push caused her to lose her balance and stumble forward.

"A-Ah!" Noel exclaimed, the icy, slippery nature of the rooftop's floor combined with her lack of balance ending with her losing her footing and falling forward. However, as she fell, the lieutenant was quick to turn-around mid-fall and fire one last shot from her shotgun before landing on her back with a yelp. The assassin took this in stride and merely leapt and flipped through the air sideways as the pellets flew towards him, twisting and moving his body in such a manner that every single pellet missed him before landing on his feet.

_'This is unbelievable! How is he countering every single thing we throw at him so easily...!?'_ Noel thought, growing more and more shocked with the assassin's effortless skill with every action he performed. Upon landing, the assassin took a moment to look himself over, oddly enough, looking especially satisfied when he took in his red coattails and noticed that there wasn't a scratch on it. In fact, Noel could've sworn she heard him mutter something along the lines of 'Ha! No bullet holes this time~!'

The pleased smirk didn't fade from his face even as he crouched down on one leg and faced Noel. "Alright baby, wanna give that another go?" The assassin teased, gesturing for her to try and hit him again.

With the angry, red blush coming back to her face in a combination of embarrassment and indignation, Noel opted to throw the assassin off-guard by changing Bolverk into its rocket launcher form and firing a bombardment of rockets at him. However, she was quick to follow this up by shifting her weapon back into its default gun form and firing off several shots, all of the bullets connecting with the rockets just when they got within arm's length of the assassin.

The end result of this was another colossal explosion that obscured what exactly became of the red-clad man. As she waited to see the smoke from the explosion clear and the result of her efforts, Noel kept her guns raised and her guard up. As much as she was hoping that her tactic was effective, their opponent had been several steps ahead of them this entire fight, and the fact that the confident, amused smile on his face didn't fade even when she switched to Bolverk's pistol forms to prematurely detonate the rockets didn't inspire much in the way of confidence either. 

**_"TRICKSTER!"_**

Ultimately, Noel found that her attack was ultimately ineffective when she saw the assassin dash out of the slowly clearing explosion, blurs of red and black trailing behind him.

"A-Again!?" The meek blonde exclaimed, undeniably disappointed that her plan didn't work despite her caution, before the sight of her opponent dashing towards her and quickly closing the distance caused her to spring back into action. She began to unload Bolverk's powerful shots in the man's direction, hoping that the onslaught of powerful bullets would either hit or cause him to retreat. However -_somehow_\- the man was able to dash towards her without any of the bullets connecting. Just before he closed the distance, Noel readied herself for another round of close combat with him, but was taken by surprise when instead of trying to attack her up close, the assassin somehow... vanished in a flash of red and black.

"W-What!? What happened...!? How did he... disappear like that...!?" The sudden disappearance of the man left the lieutenant completely blindsided. Between this and all the other uncanny abilities he displayed, it was as though this man had a trick up his sleeve and several solutions to whatever she threw his way. Whipping her head around, she scanned the rooftop for any sign of the man, only to stiffen up completely when he felt someone tap her shoulder twice to get her attention. Eyes widening, Noel was quick to turn around... 

**_*Chi-CHINK*_**

Only to be greeted with the red assassin's smirking visage inches away from her own. Feeling dread wash over her, Noel's green gaze drifted downward and saw that the assassin had his sawn-off shotgun, which was now crackling with a malicious energy, pointed right at her gut and his finger hovering over the trigger. With how close they were, Noel knew she had no time to try and evade or attack before he fired.

"Tricked ya~!" And it was with that playful remark that the assassin pulled the trigger, the charged blast from his shotgun sending Noel flying and sprawling across the floor with a pained yell.

By the time Noel managed to stop herself, she was left kneeling on the cold rooftop. She attempted to force herself back onto her feet, only to fall back to her knees just when it seemed like she could stand. Her lack of strength made her realize with no small amount of shock that the assassin's direct hit left her with nearly no aura left. _'N-Nearly all of my aura drained from just a single shot...!?'_

Jin, who'd been passively observing Noel's entire exchange with the man in red, could only scowl in distaste at how his colleague was taken out of the picture with such little effort on his part.

"Worthless trash..." Jin muttered to himself before grabbing his katana by the hilt and sheath. "Yukianesa… Hear me!" While the assassin was distracted, the air around Major Kisaragi crackled and crystallized to form several claymore ice swords. "Pierce my enemy!" With a snap of his fingers, the swords shot forth towards their intended target.

The first frost blade was mere inches from connecting with the assassin's head, but a quick head tilt to the left was all it took to miss it's target. A flash of red enveloped the man in red for a moment, and a second later revealed him donning a pair of spiky metallic gauntlets, grieves and shoulder pads.

The armor looked normal at first glance, but further observation would show that some parts of it are covered in scales. What's even more bizarre is the fact that each gauntlet had a single orange eye at the center of the back hand. Adopting a boxing stance, the assassin proceeded to let out a series of machine-gun jabs at the frozen projectiles, smashing them to bits and simultaneously causing the peculiar weapons to steadily light up with red hot flames. 

**_"ROYALGUARD!"_**

The show of combat prowess did not deter the major as he charged at the assassin with reckless abandon, swinging his katana with the intent to end his opponent's life. In retaliation, the assassin kept up the boxing stance and proceeded to bob, weave and parry Jin's precise slashes with quick and sharp jabs, as well as blocking with that annoying barrier again, much to the major's ever increasing impatience.

After another exchange of blows, the assassin threw a punch powerful enough to push back the major a good couple of feet.

"Huh… Okay, so let's recap; blue coat, katana, fancy-pants Iaijutsu style, constantly looking like you got that katana of yours jammed up your ass, AND you got magic projectile swords? Sheesh, it's like I'm looking at a cheap, rummage sale version of my brother." The man listed off, raising a finger with each point he brought up as he idly paced back and forth with his right hand underneath his chin in a look of mock-thoughtfulness. Noel, baffled by the sudden comparison, could only look at the red-clad man in confusion. Jin was confused by the comparison as well, but that feeling was greatly overshadowed by the stab of irritation and indigence at the blatant insult directed towards him.

"I haven't the slightest idea who you're talking about, but I don't take kindly to being regarded as an inferior version of someone else, trash." Not about to take such an insult lying down, Jin was quick to charge his opponent, unsheathing Yukianesa and slicing forward while it was wreathed in a blueish white energy. In fact, that assassin couldn't help but notice, with no small amount of amusement, that you could call it a sort of 'rapid slash,' of some kind.

**"ROYAL RELEASE!"**

Of course, the assassin, having plenty of experience fighting an opponent with a far more refined Iaijutsu style than Jin's, was able to easily counter the incoming icy attack. The Major was taken by surprise when the moment he came into contact with the assassin, he felt a staggering amount of force slam into him and counter his current momentum. His Aura shattered as the assassin's attack sent him careening and tumbling hard onto the concrete floor.

"M-Major Kisaragi!" Noel called out in clear concern, wasting no time in attempting to assist her superior. Instead of answering, Jin coughed up a substantial amount of blood, giving the lieutenant a clear indication of the severity of Jin's injuries.

"Whoa, looks like I took it a bit too far…" Was the assassin's response after seeing the state Jin was in, eliciting a vicious growl from Jin.

"Anyway, I hate to break this to ya Junior, but it's a pretty apropos comparison. If this was a fight with my dearly departed brother, then he'd be giving me one hell of a workout. You, on the other hand? This feels more like a, uh... lazy morning jog through the woods, if you catch my drift." 

**_*VWOOOMMM*_**

Just then, an airship flew down by the edge of the platform they were on. "Well… As fun as this little pow wow with you kids was, I'm afraid I gotta jet. Got some obligations and the like that I need to attend to, I'm sure you know how it is. Adios~!" And with that said, the man in red bid farewell and left them. Jin attempted to get back up, but was unable to due to how much damage he sustained, and despite not having her aura shattered, the same could be said about the lieutenant.

The aircraft's back entrance opened to reveal a woman. She possessed lengthy, blond hair, blue eyes, and a very fair complexion. She was cladded in black leather pants, high-heeled boots and a black corset. "Took your time. I was beginning to think you left without me…" the assassin joked with his blonde accomplice as he dismissed his gauntlet and greaves.

"You can thank Jimmies' guard dogs for that… Like honestly, you'd think they'd give up after getting put down. Speaking of…" the woman trailed off as she pointed to her left, which was the wall. However, the man in red could faintly see a streak of something yellow running along the top of said wall.

**"You're not getting away that easily, you blonde bitch!"** a thunderous roar erupted from the yellow streak, as it jumped off the wall and landed in a crouch.

The streak was revealed to be a young woman with tanned skin, platinum blonde and brown hair shaved on the sides, and violet eyes which were currently glowed bright yellow. The girl's Specialist uniform was disheveled and torn in a few places, looking as if she had been through a warzone. This was Harriet Bree, active member of General Ironwood's Ace Operatives unit.

_'Wait, isn't that…?'_ she thought before her anger suddenly spiked to new heights, causing her to make a beeline for the duo.

"Friend of yours?" the assassin joked to his accomplice, only to receive an annoyed groan from the blonde as she re-entered the airship. With a chuckle, the man in red turned to face the newest arrival with a playful smirk.

Rearing her fist, the girl prepared to deliver a full-powered lightning punch through her exo-skeleton weapon called Knuckles. In response, Ironwood's assassin merely raised his hand and **_"TRICKSTER!"_** disappeared with a snap of his fingers. "Tch! Where—"

**_*trip*_**

It all happened in an instant. A foot had suddenly appeared from her left and had made her trip up. In her panicked daze, Harriet's eyes trailed up the leg to see the owner of the foot and, lo and behold, it was the general's assassin. _'THAT SON OF A BI—!'_ Harriet's thoughts were abruptly cut off when SHE took a hard tumble to the concrete floor before face-planting onto the side of the airship with a resounding **_*GOOONG*._**

With a self-satisfied smirk on his face, the red-clad swordsman gave the unconscious and likely concussed Harriet a look over before chuckling in amusement at just how anticlimactic that confrontation was. "Phew… talk about a letdown. All that eager barking only to end up tripping over the throwaway stick…"

As he boarded the airship, Major Kisaragi desperately reached out for Yukianesa. _'I refuse… I refuse to accept this! T-To be defeated l-like this… is unacceptable!'_ the blond major thought to himself. Once the katana was back in his grip, Jin let out a pained gasp as he quickly rolled onto his stomach. He then pushed himself up into a kneeling position before holding up the blade like an archer would with a bow, pouring what little Aura he had left into his weapon.

Doing this caused the cold night wind to pick up and surround the major as ice crystals began to form on the weapon, as well as on his person. Noel saw this development and immediately panicked. "M-Major, stop…!" the lieutenant called out, trying desperately to get up and stop her superior. All the while, the rogue airship started to let out a low hum, signalling the still conscious soldiers of its inevitable takeoff.

_'The general warned us not to use these when low on Aura… But to Hell with it!'_ he thought intensely as the ice continued to grow even further on the blade, forming a shape that resembled an actual archery bow. The airship hovered off the concrete ground before it turned in the direction of the vast open skies.

The air from the exhaust ports blasted Major Kisaragi, but did not let it deter him from attempting to stop the assassin from escaping. _'I will not accept defeat knowing that this scum made a mockery of me! Not without giving it my all… with this last attack!'_

As the aircraft took off, Major Jin Kisaragi took aim at the vehicle and let out a thunderous roar.

**"_Absolute Zero: MOONSONG!_"**

**XxXxX**

**White Castle Hall,**

Red and blue lights flashed across the now restricted area of Atlas Academy. Many students of the academy now stood behind the yellow tape after hearing news of an attempted assassination on the general's life, which certainly garnered much attention.

Within the building, groups of medical examiners were putting away the corpses of the fallen soldiers in body bags, placing them to their vehicles to transport them to the labs. Off to the side, Specialist Winter Schnee could only look on with a somber expression.

Behind her, Nero was seen kneeling beside one of the dead soldiers, fiddling with their headgear before taking it off. One look was all he needed… "It's the same with this one too." the youth sounded off as his superior turned to him, only to be greeted by the soldier's gruesome face.

Red glowing eyes stared piercingly into Winter's own blue orbs, causing her to take a step back out of surprise. Nero waved to the medical examiners, signaling them that he was done checking the body. It took the Specialist a moment to recompose herself. "So… what's your take on all this?" asked the young swordsman.

"I… I don't know. Are you certain that man did nothing to these bodies while you fought? Anything at all?" the Specialist asked her subordinate.

"Trust me, he never left my sight… Other than riding one of 'em like a skateboard, the jackass didn't lay a finger on any of them… Well... uh, y'know. Beyond killing them in the first place.." Nero casually answered, which threw her off guard.

"Rode one like a-!? That barbaric fiend! I swear once that murderer is taken into custody, I will personally— **_*BZZZT! BZZZZT!*"_** Before Winter could go on a rant, her scroll alerted her of an incoming call, stopping her.

This night was quickly proving to be the worst thing to ever happen in the senior specalist's military career. First was the Dust robbery perpetrated by the White Fang, which was swiftly dealt with by Nero, and then there was the general's attempted assassination, which all went south really, really fast. Not only did Winter fail to protect Ironwood and her younger sister, but she also failed at being the leader to the soldiers she was meant to coordinate on tonight's event.

The sudden shock of seeing Ironwood getting shot in the head sent her mind into a frenzy, causing her to temporarily abandon rational thought and charge the assassin head on, and her fellow soldiers paid the price of her recklessness with their lives.

Few managed to survive the assassin's killing spree, but that could hardly be called the bright side. The elder Schnee took a deep breath before releasing it through her nose, hoping to hear good news right about now.

"Specialist Schnee."

_"..."_

"Yes, the bodies are currently being collected for data analysis. May I ask about the general's condition?" As the Specialist took the call, Nero let out a sigh before taking a seat on one of the many folding chairs strewn about the amphitheatre.

Unlike Winter, Nero wasn't too worried about the General's well-being. The man is the Atlas military's general for a reason, so he knew it'd take a lot more than just a bullet to the head to kill someone like Ironwood. "W-What?!" a surprised shout suddenly erupted from his superior, earning Nero's attention. "How is that possible?!"

The Specialist went silent for about a half second as the caller continued their report to her, until Winter ended the call with a frustrated huff. With a sigh of his own, Nero got up from his seat and approached his superior. "Bad news I take it…?"

"Yes, the worst possible news we could've gotten… Major Kisaragi and Lieutenant Vermillion, as well as Specialist Harriet Bree were found unconscious near the edge of the city. The same can be said for the rest of the Ace Ops as well. According to that report I received, they were beaten by an accomplice of that assassin." Winter explained, the report only worsening her frustration and feeling of helplessness with this entire situation. By contrast, however, Nero seemed more intrigued and slightly amused by what he just heard.

"Huh… well how 'bout that? I guess every shitty deal has some kinda silver lining to it. Just wish I could've been there to see that guy throw Kisaragi off his high horse." Nero smirked, letting out a few muted chuckles at just how badly a frosty perfectionist asshole like Jin would likely take this loss.

"Nero, _we are in the middle of a crisis__!_ Is it too much to ask that you stop with the cavalier attitude for once and treat the situation at-hand with a modicum of the seriousness it warrants!?" Winter snapped, quick to send a glare Nero's way that made it very clear she did not appreciate him making light of the situation. However, while most would've quickly shriveled up under Winter's icily furious gaze, the white-haired youth had long since grown desensitized to it, instead just giving his superior a deadpan, unamused look.

"C'mon Winter, don't give me that. I'm just as serious about this whole shitshow as you are, but if I'm understanding what you told me right, then there's really no point in freaking out about it at this point. If this guy was able to tear through Kisaragi and Noel while this buddy of his put the Ace Ops in their place, then they're probably long gone by now." Nero pointed out dryly. Winter maintained her icy glare for another moment before her posture deflated ever so slightly and she let out a tired sigh, looking and walking away from him slightly as she continued.

"I… suppose you make a valid point in that regard. More importantly, I suppose it ultimately wouldn't even have mattered if we did apprehend that fiend or not." The swordswoman explained, her words causing Nero to look at her questioningly.

"Whaddaya mean by that?" He asked.

"In… In addition to that status report I received on those who fought with that assassin, I was also informed that the General regained consciousness."

"Well… I mean that's good news, isn't it?" Nero pointed out, confused as to why Winter still had that grim and miserable look on her face. He knew that the older woman was never one to let her emotions show, but he would've figured news like that would've warranted a slight smile or something.

"It is, but for reasons I can't possibly begin to understand, he's called off the hunt for his assailant." Winter clarified, drawing a look of surprise from the hot-blooded youth.

"Huh… okay, yeah, I can see why you'd be put off by that. After what he did to him, I would've figured Ironwood would want that asshole's head on a pike." It seemed that with each passing minute, more and more questions were piled on top of the ever-growing mystery today presented, and at the center of all this was that laid-back, claymore wielding man in red. Just what the hell was his deal? How did he display such superhuman feats during Nero's fight with him? It couldn't have been a semblance or aura that allowed him to shrug off getting that claymore of his run through his chest. And how the hell did he know what was up with the men he killed?

Winter seemed to have recognized that Nero had many questions on his mind, because she was quick to follow up with, "Once he's fully recovered, I'll have to consult with the General myself to see if he can't shed any light on the events that occured today. For now, though, I'm afraid there's nothing else that can be done."

"Right… already figured that part out." The youth said dryly, taking a brief moment to look over his covered right arm as he reflected on the mysterious man. "So what now?"

"...Come. Walk with me, Nero." Was all the elder Schnee had to say, turning towards the Ampitheater's exit without even looking to see if Nero was following her. Letting out a small noise of surprise at her sudden shift in demeanor, the hot-headed youth quickly shook off any thoughts of the man before following after Winter. 

**XxXxX**

As they stepped out of the Academy's front doors and were greeted with the academy's airfield, Nero couldn't help but silently take in all the military personel and airships that were stationed outside. Even with the manhunt for him being called off, it was all too clear to see that the assassin's stunt was a kick to the proverbial hornet's nest. The fact that he managed to pull off an escape from the city despite the best of the kingdom's forces being after him likely didn't help matters either.

However, as the two white-haired specialists made their way towards Winter's airship, with the elder Schnee in question pointedly ignoring the salutes of any soldiers they passed by, Nero soon began to notice a familiar figure standing near the ramp of the airship.

"Weiss…?" Nero thought aloud, slowing down his walk to a halt as he and Winter closed in on the airship. Upon catching sight of the two of them, Weiss was quick to approach them both, a relieved smile clear to see on her face.

"There you both are!" Weiss exclaimed, a shaken but relieved tone in her voice. "When I heard that fiend managed to escape, I… couldn't help but assume the worst." All it took was one look to see that despite her trying to keep up a strong front, that the younger Schnee sister was shaken by what happened today. Nero certainly couldn't blame her for that. He imagined that anyone would be freaked out after that red-clad bastard took Myrtenaster to the palm without flinching and started to close in on her all menacingly.

"What? You thought I was in trouble?" Nero joked, attempting to make light of the situation to reassure her. "I actually had him on the ropes 'till he decided to puss out. Besides, at least I'm still standing after dealing with him. Can't say the same about Kisaragi or the Ace Ops." That last sentence got him a sharp smack to the back of the head from an irate Winter.

"How many times must I remind you to not casually bring up confidential military intel to civilians, family or not!?" Winter scolded him, an annoyed scowl on her face. "You are very fortunate I'm much more lenient towards you and your attitude than I should be, otherwise you'd have been dishonorably discharged ages ago!"

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks for the reminder, Winter." Nero responded dryly, tenderly rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, I can certainly see that my concern was unwarranted now." Was all Weiss had to say in response, rolling her eyes at Nero's ever-constant flippant attitude. That being said, the amused smile on her face made it clear that his attempts at making the SDC heiress feel better worked, much to his satisfaction.

Nero was about to continue their banter when he noticed something red glinting on Weiss's chest. Giving it a better look, the impulsive youth was surprised to see that she was wearing the gift he brought to her performance -something to commemorate and congratulate the heiress for getting into Beacon. To better clarify, it was a golden necklace with a red gemstone at the center wrapped around a pair of golden wings.

Weiss was quick to catch on to where Nero's gaze was and merely looked at him with a bashful smile, silently awaiting his thoughts on how she looked. However, in an uncharacteristic display of shyness, the hot-headed young man could only quickly look away from Weiss, pink slowly beginning to dust his cheeks. For her part, Winter could only watch the two's interaction with a slight, muted chuckle, a small smile on her face despite herself.

"So uh… what are you still doing here, anyway?" Nero finally managed, hoping to divert focus from his awkward behavior, looking towards Winter as he continued… which also conveniently allowed him to not look at Weiss's disappointed pout from his lack of response. "After everything that happened today, I woulda figured you'd get her as far away from here as possible."

"It's more convenient all around that Weiss be present for this as well. After all, it concerns the both of you." Winter clarified, gaining curious looks from both Nero and Weiss.

"...Now, even though the general called off the hunt for that assassin, the fact that a man of such strength is now at large with no way of knowing where he is has left me quite concerned." Winter explained, giving the two of them a pointed look as she continued. "More to the point, I'm sure the both of you noticed that Grimm mask he was wearing, did you not?"

"Obviously. You'd have to be blind for that to slip by you." Nero scoffed, causing both Winter and Weiss to shoot him annoyed looks. On the latter's part, however, she took a moment to think on what her sister was saying before answering as well.

"Do you think that man's aligned with the White Fang, Winter?" She asked, getting a nod of affirmation from her sister.

"I do. If not as a formal member, then as a hired gun. If nothing else, it would explain his attempt to assassinate the General. They have almost as much bad blood with the Atlas military as they do with our family," Winter explained. "And that brings us back to the topic at hand. Weiss, I'm frankly not comfortable having you head off to Beacon Academy by yourself in a few weeks." The blunt and sudden way in which she said this surprised Nero and left Weiss reeling like she'd been struck.

"W-_What_!? Winter, what are you saying!?" The Schnee family heiress exclaimed the moment she regained her voice, the look on her face a combination of shock, horror, and betrayal.

"Weiss, that man single-handedly murdered the squadron of soldiers under my command before easily defeating the best Atlas had to offer. If he really is working for the White Fang, _then what if they decide to send him after you next_?" Winter sighed, her blunt and piercing words once again shocking Weiss into silence. "If such a thing occurred here, in Atlas, then I would at least feel secure in the knowledge that both Nero and myself would be here to defend you. However, I don't have that security if you're a continent away from home."

"Winter, please, you can't really be telling me that you want me to stay here in Atlas! Not after everything I went through for the chance to go there and finally get away from father!" Weiss pleaded, clearly desperate to avoid losing the chance to attend classes at Beacon. Nero, understanding her distress, was about to speak up in an attempt to back Weiss up. However, Winter bringing up her open palm sharply silenced any further protests from Weiss and stopped Nero from speaking outright.

"_I'm not saying that, Weiss._ So please, let me finish before jumping to conclusions." Winter explained sharply, silencing any further protests from her fellow white-heads. "Now, while not heading to Vale outright is certainly a solution to this dilemma, doing so would also be an insult to the effort and lengths you've gone to for the opportunity, so I decided upon a much more convenient solution."

"O-Oh… alright, so… what is it then?" Weiss asked tentatively, no longer scared of losing her chances to attend Vale's combat school outright, but still apprehensive, especially after the scare she just received. For his part, Nero merely watched the proceedings silently with a questioning expression, frankly thinking he was an outsider to this entire issue… At least until Winter looked directly at him, that is.

"Simply put- Nero will be accompanying you to Beacon." Winter clarified, once again blindsiding the two of them. However, in Weiss's case, her surprise was far more pleasant this time around.

"R...Really?" Weiss asked hesitantly, eyes wide and a hopeful smile on her face. In response, Winter could only smile slightly before nodding.

"Really. While he wasn't able to stop his escape, Nero was the only one capable of fighting on par with that man. With this in mind, I'll feel considerably better about your attending classes at Beacon so long as he's there with you. Fighting together, the both of you should be able to hold your own against him should he truly make a reappearance." The elder Schnee finished before asking rhetorically. "Now then, am I correct in assuming that neither of you are against these conditions?"

"Of course! I'm perfectly fine with this, Winter!" Just as Winter expected, Weiss was quick to assure her sister that he had no problems with this whatsoever, a radiant and happy expression on her face.

"You're the boss here, Winter. You want me to go, then I'll go." Despite trying to sound nonchalant about the whole issue, the growing smirk on Nero's face combined with the pleased tone leaking into his voice made it clear to the sisters that he was just as fine with this as Weiss was.

"Good. Additionally, I imagine that spending some time attending a proper huntsman academy could do you well, given that you never bothered with that process here." Winter smiled, referring to how Nero simply straight-up enlisted in Atlas's military and worked his way up to specialist rather than earn a spot through classes in Atlas Academy. His surprising amount of natural skill when it came to combat certainly helped in that regard.

"Now then, it goes without saying that the both of you have had a long day, especially with how late it is. Nero, your final order for the day is to escort Weiss home before returning to your quarters and getting some rest. I can imagine you both have much to be thinking about in the coming weeks… in addition to having much to pack."

"You got it, ma'am. C'mon Weiss." Nero affirmed with a rare show of respect to his superior, offering Weiss his hand. The heiress could only smile gently at this before taking his hand, a light blush dusting her face as they both walked up the ramp and into Winter's airship. For her part, Winter could merely watch on with a smile.

_'He must truly be in a good mood if he willingly called me 'ma'am'.'_ The Atlesian specialist thought, giving the snowy Atlas skyline, which was lit up brightly by the cityscape surrounding her, one last look before exhaling and following after her sister and surrogate sibling.

This night certainly ended in chaos and with many questions left hanging in the cold air, but for now, they could go unanswered.

**_To be continued…  
_**

**AN: And that is it for now! Major thanks and shoutout to my awesome beta-reader and co-writer, _lolrus555_ for proofreading and helping me write this threeway fusion fic! Honestly, this could've been updated sooner, but that's just how life goes... It just keeps throwing curve balls at you without mercy. So until the next update, I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. OMAKE - Red vs Blue

**AN: Hello again, Readers. Apologies, but this is not an actual chapter... Just a short Omake me and lolrus came up with while writing chapter 2. We we're going to include this in the actual chapter, but had to cut it out as to not clutter up the story... So we hope you enjoy!  
**

**Chapter 2.5: Red vs Blue  
**

**12.04 AM, Atlas building rooftops,**

Moments after receiving orders from command, several military-issued Bullheads and assault vehicles were dispatched in a race to apprehend General Ironwood's assailant.

The bullhead flew above the Atlesian buildings with searchlights on the fleeing figure of the assassin. "There you are, you son-of-a-bitch…" the pilot whispered and contacted their base. "Command, this is Bullhead 479er, I have the suspect in sight and he's really bookin' it! He's headed northwest of the academy."

_"__We cannot allow him to escape after what he did! All bullheads, rendezvous with 479er and do everything you can to stop him. Ground forces, evacuate all civilians within the building after securing the perimeter. Storm the roof as soon as the last civilians leaves the building."_

With their battle plan decided, the pilot hangs up and turned on the bullheads intercom. "Alright Church, target is inbound. Motherbase said weapons free." The pilot informed their passenger and started speeding up, overtaking the man in red. _"Alright, time to test out this new sniper rifle!" _a soldier with light blue accents named Church cheered, earning a sigh from the pilot. "Just try NOT to miss? You're still getting heat from command for almost team-killing your new recruit."

_"__Okay, first of all, the newbie getting shot was NOT my fault! The sun was in my eye when I was aiming. Secondly, he was wearing the EXACT same old armor as those practice dummies! How was I supposed to tell the fuckin' difference?" _he argued back as he slams in a magazine into the weapon.

"Just DON'T fuck it up this time!"

_"Alright__, fine! Just open the goddamn door already!"_

As soon as the back entrance opened, Church went down on one knee, took aim and fired at the assassin. Instead of hitting the target however, the bullet shot the ground in front of the man in red, stopping him within his tracks and making him look up.

There was a short moment of pregnant silence before the pilot called him with the radio again. _"You missed the target again, didn't you?"_

"No I didn't. That was just a- uh, warning shot! Yeah, a warning shot!" he retorted as to save face, before turning on the built-in speaker in his helmet. **_"ALRIGHT RED! THAT WAS YOUR ONE WARNING SHOT! _****_IF YOU DON'T SURRENDER, _****_THE NEXT ONE'S GOING RIGHT BETWEEN YOUR EYES!"_** Church warned the assassin, making sure to aim on target.

"_'Surrender'_?" The man in red repeated and looked to where the bullet hit before turning back to the sniper with a response. "With an aim like that, I don't really feel like doing it. Why don't you take another crack at me, hotshot?" the assassin offered as he adopted a sassy pose, doubting the soldiers words before gesturing him to do just that.

Church's anger flared at the man in red's mocking tone and decides to take him up on that offer. **_"ALL RIGHT, I WARNED YA! SAYONARA, BIATCH!" _**he bade farewell and fired without hesitating, missing the assassin's head by a good 10 inches. **_"OH COME ON! WHAT THE FUCK?!"_**

In response to such a blatant lack of skill and precision, the assassin merely looked behind him and over at where the bullet whizzed past him and into the distance with a curious look on his face. After a brief moment of examining the smoke trail the round left slowly fading away, he turned back to the sniper's direction with an amused smirk before he leaned forward and once again gestured for the sniper to plant one of those bullets between his eyes.

As one could likely imagine, the already agitated soldier took no small amount of offense to the assassin's patronizing.

**_"OH YOU SMUG ANIME-WANNABE ASSWIPE! Y'KNOW WHAT!? FORGET WHAT I SAID, THE NEXT ONE'S GOING BETWEEN YOUR LEGS!"_** The sniper roared out furiously, firing another shot from his rifle. Unfortunately for him, however, his bluster was once again proven to be just that -a bluster- when a waist length shot whizzed past the man in red harmlessly.**_ "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"_** He exclaimed in frustration, now firing rapidly in the assassin's direction to no effect whatsoever.

"Sheesh, who woulda' thought Atlas' finest consisted of the peanut gallery?" The swordsman mused to himself as more bullets whizzed passed him, filling the air around him with a slight breeze. This continued for a bit longer and during that time, the assassin nonchalantly checked the time on his scroll. Upon noticing that time was unfortunately running a little short, he decided that he'd enjoyed enough playtime for one day.

"Alright pal, as fun as it is watching you show off that you couldn't blast the broad side of a barn, I'm afraid I gotta jet. But hey, don't let this discourage you! Just keep at it! Give it a couple years of intensive training at the shooting gallery, and you might actually be able to graze me with one of those rounds!"

**_"YOU SMUG" *BANG!* "CONDESCENDING" *BANG!* "PIECE OF" *BANG!* "BLOODY DIARRHEA!"_**

At this point, as the sniper's furious insults were punctuated by sniper fire, all of which continued to whiz past him with no threat of hitting him whatsoever, the assassin's amused expression was slowly replaced with a frown, because frankly, this was starting to stop being funny and just started getting sad on the sniper's part. Letting out a small sigh and a shake of his head, the assassin decided to show this dipshit what a real sharpshooter looked like... or perhaps Gunslinger would be a more appropriate term on his part?

**_*BANG!*_**

Regardless, in a split second, the assassin was quick to pull out his black pistol from its holster and without even looking, sent a single powerful bullet towards the sniper that, with great precision, zipped into the sniper's barrel just as he pulled the trigger once more, jamming the rifle and decimating the barrel, much to it's user's frustration and bewilderment.

**_"AH! WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE!?"_**

As the soldier tried to figure out just how the hell the red-clad man was capable of such a feat, the sharp sound of a whistle from his direction caught his attention. Using his still-intact scope to check, the soldier's confusion was quickly replaced with an increasingly common display of anger when he saw the assassin looking right at him with a smug, all-too pleased with himself grin.

With his gun still drawn, the assassin took aim and shot the bullhead's left wing Dust-engine. This resulted in a small windy explosion rather than a normal fiery one, which caused the aircraft to lose control of itself. "Sayonara, BITCH~!" And with that ironic farewell bid topped off with a flippant wave goodbye, the assassin continued on his merry way, ignoring the humiliated soldier's furious exclamations towards him as the bullhead descended to the concrete ground.

**_To be continued…_**


	5. The Flashy Beacon

**Chapter 3: The Flashy Beacon**

**1 week later, Beacon Academy**

The airship touched down at the landing platform and laid down the ramp. The white haired pair walked out of the Bullhead, and were subsequently mesmerized by the sight presented to them. Unlike the citadel-esque look Atlas Academy rocked, Beacon Academy came off as very archaic to the both of them, resembling a castle from a time long before the kingdoms were established and it certainly did a good job impressing two of its new students

"Damn, they definitely don't build buildings like this in Atlas." Nero whistled, and Weiss could only nod in agreement. Once their feet touched the ground, the pair began to walk in the direction of the school's amphitheater, accompanied by a team of four butlers.

Nero carried two duffel bags on his shoulder and the butlers trailed behind him and the heiress, while pushing trolleys full of Dust cases each, one of which had a large case with a sword insignia on top. "Sheesh, went a little overboard with the expenses, did ya…?" the young man asked rhetorically while looking back at the butlers pushing the heavy loads.

"Of course I did. If we're going to be attending this academy for the next four years, we're going to need to use Dust of the highest quality available to us… Besides, half of those belong to you, so you won't need to worry about running out of Dust ammunition 'till next semester." Weiss informed him.

"You don't say? Well then, I humbly thank you for your generous donation, milady." Nero teased her with a bow, which earned him a light punch from the heiress.

"Enough of that coy attitude of yours…" she scolded him, but smiled nonetheless at her friend's gesture. Despite still maintaining her usual demeanor, the giddiness she felt several weeks ago at the revelation that Nero was going to be attending classes here with her still left her riding a pleasant high. Ever since the hot-blooded youth followed in Winter's footsteps and enlisted in Atlas's military, it became considerably harder for the both of them to see one another, thanks in no small part to the fact that her father-

**_*CRASH*_**

A loud crash interrupted the heiress' train of thought. A few feet behind them, a girl wearing a red cloak could be seen lying on the concrete ground and was crushed by both Weiss' luggage and Nero's case. Immediately, Weiss's expression turned to a displeased one as she marched in the direction of the scene. "Oh boy, here we go…" Nero groaned to himself, already knowing where this interaction was about to go, before trailing behind her.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Weiss demanded angrily, but the only response she got from the girl was a weak, strangled noise, the weight of all the luggage -Nero's case especially- slowly choking the life out of her. The young man in question quickly went to the poor girl's aid, lugging his case over his shoulder like it weighed nothing.

"Ooof! Oh, T-Thank you! I thought I was gonna black out for a second there…" the girl thanked him as she quickly sat up, taking a moment to realize the heiress' presence in front of her.

"O-Oh! Uh, sorry…" the young girl, having silver eyes and black hair with red highlights apologized, sitting up from her current position.

"_Sorry?_ Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused!?" Weiss scolded. "I, uh…" the girl tried to answer, only to see a hand offered to her.

"Are you hurt?" the Specialist asked casually.

She looked up and her silver eyes met with Nero's blue ones, before accepting his offer to help. "N-No I'm alright, thanks for the help…! But, uh, sorry that I made a mess of your stuff…" the girl apologized again as Nero pulled her back up to her feet.

"No big deal—" "Yes it _is, _Nero!" Weiss interrupted her companion's words.

"She could've blown us all to bits before we could even graduate Beacon! If not that, then all of our Dust reserves would have been wasted because of her!" the ponytailed heiress listed off a few of the possible scenarios that could have happened. She then picked up one of the fallen Dust cases and inspected the contents for any possible damaged vials.

"Eh, well nothing like that did happen, so no harm, no foul in my book…" Nero said, merely shrugging his shoulders at the thought before turning his gaze back to the red-hooded girl. "So, what's a kid like you doing here at Beacon? Early school field trip or something…?" Nero decided to ask, a bit curious with the young girl's presence within a top-tier Huntsman academy.

"Well, uh… it's a long story, really." The younger girl told them, fidgeting in place. But before she could elaborate on her presence at the academy, Weiss was quick to cut in, still none too happy at her mishap.

"Oh, I'm sure it is. Let me guess; does it involve you blowing up immeasurable amounts of Dust?" Weiss asked accusingly.

"N-No, of course not…!" Ruby defended, her face red from sheer embarrassment. But after an awkward silence nearly took over, "But… it did involve a Dust Shop in Vale and a few explosions." Ruby admitted bashfully, kicking a pebble on the ground.

Nero's face went from neutral to an amused one in seconds and said, "Huh, guess I spoke too soon."

Weiss, on the other hand, crossed her arms against her chest before she harrumphed loudly. "As expected from a naïve child." The ponytailed heiress commented arrogantly, which didn't please Ruby at all.

"Hey, I said I was sorry _'Princess'_!"

"It's heiress actually." Another feminine voice replied in a calm tone.

A girl Weiss' and Nero's age walked up holding the bottle that had rolled in her direction. The main characteristics that made her stand out was her waist length black hair and a bow tied on top of her head, all topped off by a set of amber eyes. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company; One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." The girl in black explained to Ruby.

"Finally, some recognition" Weiss smugly stated. Nero, on the other hand, was much less oblivious to where this conversation was going. Turning away from Weiss, he closed his eyes, braced himself and began counting down in his head.

_'Three… Two… One…'_ and as if on cue, "The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." The raven haired girl finished in an insulting manner.

"Wha— how dare you-!? The nerve of…"

"Nailed it." Nero cheered to himself as Weiss kept trailing off with her words, while Ruby giggled in silent delight.

"Nero, are you just gonna let her get away with saying all of that!?" Weiss said to him angrily, clearly displeased with the newcomer's insult towards her family company.

In response, Nero could only shrug his shoulders in a manner that said 'hands are tied' before responding. "Well… I mean, I thought we both agreed your old man's kind of a..." '_colossal, crooked jackass.'_ He trailed off, making sure not to say that last part out loud, which likely for the best considering Weiss was already in a sour mood in the first place. At this, she swiped the bottle from the girl and went ahead of Nero, letting out an annoyed huff as she walked away.

The Specialist could only let out a small, exasperated noise before turning back to Ruby. "I-I promise I'll make it up to you!" Ruby called out one last time, only to cast her gaze towards the ground. Sighing in defeat, the cloaked girl fell to her knees before collapsing onto her back. "Welcome to Beacon…" she muttered and closed her eyes to block out the sunlight. Fortunately for her, Nero stood beside her and provided her with shade.

"First impressions aren't exactly your strong point, are they?" the white haired young man asked casually, to which she responded with a slow nod.

"Eh, well… don't stress yourself out over all that. She always does that when she feels like she's gotta sulk for a while, and it doesn't last. Give her a day or two and she'll cool off on you." Nero offered in an attempt to ease the silver-eyed girl's own bout of sulking and angst.

"O-Oh! You really think she's not gonna hold all that against me...!?" Ruby asked as she quickly sat up, a painfully hopeful look and tone in her voice that caused the white-haired youth to recoil slightly.

"Well, uh..." Nero trailed off, suddenly having difficulty looking Ruby in the eyes. While he was certain that Weiss would've forgotten her anger at him next time he saw her, he honestly couldn't say the same for the silver-eyed girl. If there was one thing Nero found out about Weiss in all the years that he knew her, it's that first impressions always left a bit of a mark on her, whether they were good or bad. All things considered, it would probably take a bit of work to make the heiress forget the stigma she now gained against Ruby.

Still… he couldn't bring himself to outright say this when she was looking at him with such a desperately hopeful look on his face now could he? "Tell you what, I'll put in a good word for you next time I see her."

"R-Really!? Oh thank you thank you thank you so much! The last thing I wanted was to start my first day at Beacon with someone hating my guts!" Ruby cheered in visible excitement and relief, quickly taking his left hand with both her hands and rapidly shaking them up and down in gratitude. "Oh, and by the way, if I didn't say it already, I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose! It's really nice to meet you!"

"Uh… Rodin Nero, and yeah, sure. _Man, she's really starting to remind me of **her**…_" Nero thought to himself before tuning back to their conversation. "Still, think I could ask you for a favor in exchange?" Nero managed, his request causing Ruby to slowly bring her enthusiastic handshaking to a halt.

"Yeah, of course! Just name it!" Ruby declared happily.

"Just do me a favor and try not to hold all this against her, alright? Weiss can be seriously frosty starting off, but she really is a good person if you can get past that. She's just not as good with meeting new people as she likes to pretend is all, so she… tends to get a bit hostile if shit goes south, kinda like it did in your case… uh, no offense." Nero explained. Given that he could count the number of people Weiss was close to on one hand, it came as no surprise to him that she always acted along these lines when meeting someone new and if something went south. "But uh... you didn't hear any of this from me, got it?"

"O-Oh, yeah! Of course! Don't worry!" Ruby responded quickly, all while a look of understanding crossed her face.

"Alright, glad we're on the same page there. Well," Nero began, taking a moment to stretch his arms behind his head as he looked towards Beacon. "might as well get going. You can tell me about how you ended up here while we walk."

000

*****O*****

000

"...And then, after I realized those guys were trying to rob me, I crashed through the front window, took off my headphones, and went all 'WHA-CHA! WOO YA!' on them!" Ruby explained excitedly, taking a moment to stop in her stride to do a variety of exaggerated kung-fu poses with Crescent Rose in front of Nero, who could only watch on with an amused look on his face.

"Huh… sounds like you had a busy day, but I guess if you got brought in here several years early _because _of that busy day, that's a given." Nero said, looking at Ruby with curiosity. "So what happened then?"

"Well after taking care of all those goons, I went after that Torchwick guy, but then he got one of his criminal friends to come in riding a bullhead and then they almost blew me up, but that's when Professor Goodwitch came in and started having this awesome magic duel with the lady in the bullhead!" Ruby rattled off excitedly, the events of that hectic night in Vale still fresh in her mind. "They kinda got away anyway, but I still got to see a professional huntress in action, so I'd still call that night a win in my book."

"And I'm guessing all those stunts you pulled caught her eye, huh?" Nero assumed, only for Ruby to respond with a meek chuckle, closing her eyes and rubbing her arm before clarifying.

"Not… really. She was actually more interested in taking me to the nearest police station, yelling at me for a bunch of stuff, and sending me home. It was actually Professor Ozpin that was interested in me and wanted me coming to Beacon." Ruby clarified. Nero merely nodded silently in response before speaking up once more.

"Man, talk about one hell of a lucky streak on your end. With how enthusiastic you seem to be about the huntsman lifestyle, I bet coming here several years early is a dream come true, huh?" The white-haired youth asked rhetorically, only to get a response he didn't expect when Ruby merely looked away and rubbed her arm slightly. Upon bringing up her early admission to the school, the silver-eyed girl's previously enthusiastic demeanor was replaced with a meek uncertainty.

"...Honestly? I'd've been a lot happier if Professor Ozpin just offered me a… I dunno, the assurance that I'd get into Beacon after I graduated from Signal. I just kinda feel… out of my depth being here now." Ruby admitted "I mean, everything looks bigger and scarier than ever, the assignments are probably gonna be a lot harder than anything I got at Signal, and I don't got any of my friends with me! I _thought _that I'd be okay since my sister was gonna be attending classes with me, but she just ditched me on that walkway the first chance she got! Then I bumped into you and your crabby friend Weiss aaaaand… you know how that went…" Ruby listed off, growing more and more animated before deflating at the very end upon mentioning her unfortunate run-in with Nero and Weiss.

"You _really _don't got much of a thick skin, do ya Ruby?" Nero asked dryly.

"Can you blame me!? This is like an anxious first day at school with everything going wrong made a billion times worse!" She exclaimed defensively, comically collapsing to her back as she finished.

"Right… okay," Was all Nero had to say in response to her melodramatics, raising a brow at her comical despair before helping her back to her feet. "Well hey, silver lining, I think you're pretty good company, so you gotta be doing something right."

"R-Really…!? N-N'aaaaw, s-shut up, you're just… s-shut up~..." Ruby was quick to fluster up at Nero's words of reassurance, blushing and trailing muttering off various ways of saying 'shut up,' all while not meaning a word of it. She quickly realized that she was rambling though, much to the white-head's amusement, and quickly recomposed herself before continuing. "So uh… how'd you even get to know a crabby girl like Weiss in the first place?"

"Well, me and Weiss happen to go way back. Back when I was a kid, some crazy shit happened to me that ended with her big sis taking me in." Nero explained, continuing before Ruby could ask for any details regarding his affiliation with the Schnee family. "As for why I'm here with her… Well, that's classified info, sadly. Has to stay under lock and-"

**_*BOOM!*_**

"...key." Nero finished after a moment's confusion, looking ahead of him where he heard that explosion shatter the comfortable atmosphere that settled around the campus.

"What was that?!" Ruby asked in surprise, scrambling to her feet. Feeling curious, Nero sprinted in the direction of the sound with the red hooded girl right by him.

000

*****O*****

000

**Around the courtyard,**

The sound of shotgun rounds being fired came from the crowded area as the duo arrived at the scene. Turning towards a random student, "Hey, you know what's going on here?"

"Some guy with a giant sword and blonde chick just started fighting in the courtyard. It's crazy cool…!" The student closest to them replied, recording the whole fight using their Scroll.

"Giant sword?!" Ruby asked, eyes glimmering at the thought.

"Some blonde chick…?" Nero also asked.

Upon hearing that get repeated by Nero, Ruby immediately stiffened up while her mood soured. "Oh no."

Without warning, a yell of anger sounded off from the area followed by the sound of two shotgun blasts and a yell familiar only to the ears of Ruby Rose. In the middle of the crowded area, two individuals could be seen matching one another blow for blow with their weapons.

The first was a young blonde student with red eyes wearing a tan vest over a yellow top with a black crest that resembles a burning heart. She also wore black shorts under her belt, which resembled a pleated skirt in the back, along with an orange infinity scarf around her neck. On her arms were a pair of yellow gauntlets with black linings that have several shotgun rounds within its chamber, which was obviously the blonde's weapon.

Opposing said blonde was a boy with hair the same shade as Nero's and dual colored eyes, the left being green and the right being red. His attire consisted of a vibrant red sleeved jacket over a black long sleeved shirt with a white lining, all of which had a number of belts and metallic parts littering it, as well as wearing a black hakama and steel-toed red boots. He also wore black gloves, with the right one having a red shell on its back. Gripped tightly in his hand was his weapon, a large sword, which he wielded with great ease.

_'!?' _Almost instinctively, Nero's hand darted towards Blue Rose's handle at his thigh holster, the primary features of his fellow swordsman instantly causing the Atlesian specialist to associate him with Ironwood's would-be killer in an instance of knee-jerk reaction. However, a second of closer inspection caused him to realize that it wasn't that annoyingly lax and playful man.

Not only was the red coat different, but the rest of this guy's outfit was distinctly Mistralian, providing a stark contrast to the assassin's Vacuan cowboy attire. Then there was the fact that the assassin also wielded a gothic claymore with a screaming skull acting as the guard, whereas this guy wielded a sword that was more of a sleek, oversized knife. Finally, one look at the irritated scowl on the swordsman's face was all Nero needed to know that despite their surface-level similarities, this guy was the assassin's antithesis.

"Will you piss off already!? I don't have time to deal with your bullshit, Yang!" The white haired swordsman barked while the two of them were stuck in a deadlock.

"Not until I pound your face into a bloody pulp, you prick!" the blonde threatened, holding back the sharp blade with her gloved hands.

With a horizontal-slash, the young swordsman delivered a devastating blow to his opponent, but the brawler, now named Yang, managed to block using her gauntlets and was merely pushed back a couple of feet. Coincidentally, she skidded to halt right in front of the newest arrivals.

"Friends of yours…?" Nero asked dryly, raising a brow at the brawl ensuing in front of them.

"Yang, what are you doing?!" the younger of the two called out, her eyes quickly darting between her sister and her opponent. Curiously enough, there seemed to be a brief spark of recognition in Ruby's silver eyes as she took in the red-clad, scowling man.

"Getting payback sis, that's what!" Yang answered, not bothering to look at her sister. Using her gauntlets, the blonde propelled herself towards the one who opposed her.

"Alright, if it's a fight you want…" he trailed off, clenching his fist. Rearing back her dominant hand, Yang made to punch the swordsman with all she's got, only to clash with her opponent's open hand, which quickly closed around her fist. "Huh?"

The initial impact had stopped the blonde in her tracks, and the young whitehead managed to overpower and forcefully shove the opposing fist back, throwing his blonde opponent off balance. Seizing the chance, the young man wielded his sword in reverse-grip to perform an upper slash that broke through Yang's guard.

"Ah!" The blonde brawler exclaimed, the force of the slash draining a portion of her aura and sending her flying and tumbling back to the edge of the crowd that circled them. Planting both her hands on the ground, she skidded to a stop and quickly leveled her red-eyed glare at her opponent, who kept his own scowl trained on her as he swung his sword back into position.

"THEN THAT'S WHAT YOU'LL FUCKING GET! _BRING IT!"_ With that furious exclamation, the scowling man lept toward Yang with his sword drawn in a furious lunge. Never one to balk in the face of a challenge, the furious blonde met him and his sword head-on.

***CLANG!_ Skkkkrsh!*_**

Bringing one of her armored forearms up just as the blade was about to crash into her, Yang blocked the blade and stood strong despite the staggering level of strength in that sword swing. Gritting her teeth, the brawler proceeded to dash forward along the sword's length, her Ember Celica gauntlets grinding up against stainless steel of the knife-like blade and sending sparks flying everywhere. Rearing back her other fist, she aimed a crippling blow right for her opponent's center of mass.

"Try harder!" However, the red-clad man saw this coming and merely scoffed in response. Twisting his body to the side, he handily avoided the punch, much to Yang's shock. Stumbling forward, she was forced to take the brunt of a roundhouse kick to the face her opponent sent her way, subsequently sending her back several feet.

Skidding back and growing angrier with each passing second, Yang didn't hesitate to throw herself back into the fray and bombard the swordsman with a series of fast and powerful punches, a glowing yellow aura slowly but surely beginning to radiate from her. Once again though, he was able to either dodge or block the blows with his sword, occasionally swinging his blade at her to counter. She was able to either block or dodge those counters herself, but regardless couldn't land a single blow on her opponent, much to her increasing ire.

Blocking another punch with his blade, the red-clad whitehead let out an irritated and uncomfortable grunt when Yang didn't let up in her pressure, instead gritting her teeth and pouring more power into it in a bid to break through his guard.

_"Will you… just… FUCK OFF ALREADY!?" _However, as strong as Yang was, her opponent still had the strength to outclass the ever-growing power her semblance gave her, swinging the blade out and once again sending the blonde brawler flying back. Skidding to a halt for the umpteenth time in this duel, Yang's aura was now flaring up without restraint as she kept her red-eyed glare on her perpetually pissed off adversary. However, after a brief moment, the blonde couldn't help but let out a pleased chuckle as her scowling glare turned into an eager smirk, her blood-red gaze boring right into him.

"Right when things are getting really fun? _Not a chance!"_ And it was with that eager, anticipating remark that Yang pumped her fists back, reloading the shotgun shells in her gauntlets and charged the whitehead once more, her fists reared back to strike. The man in question could only let out a growl of distaste before mirroring her action, sword raised.

**_*BOOM!*_**

However, before things could escalate any further, the impromptu brawl came to a screeching halt when a small explosion that could be likened to a cannonball firing echoed through the campus. Both Yang and her opponent froze up mid-swing at the sound for a brief instance before simultaneously looking towards where the noise came from.

"Now children, I understand you're all very excited to be here and eager to see some commotion, but let's try to exercise some restraint for our first day at this prestigious institution, shall we?"

And what they saw was a portly old man with a comically large mustache in a red double-breasted coat, and despite his eyes seemingly being closed and how that mustache of his completely obscured his mouth, he seemed to radiate a calm but firm air of authority. In his hand was a smoking weapon that looked to be a cross between a blunderbuss and an axe.

_'Guess that guy's part of the staff…'_ Was what was currently going through Nero's head, remaining silent as he passively watched the portly man stride into the middle of the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he also noticed that several nervous students on the outer ends of the crowd took this chance to discreetly slip away should the man try to evoke any kind of punishment for the commotion.

"I do hope that none of you have forgotten that there's an opening ceremony that you all need to attend to. You should all spend less time playing audience to what's essentially a street brawl and more time ensuring you aren't late to your first mandatory assembly here at Beacon Academy." The professor pointed out, tucking his blunderbuss under his armpit as he watched several students in the crowd squirm under his gaze… which was quite curious, given how the man seemed to keep his eyes perpetually shut. However, his tone and demeanor quickly began to lighten up, letting out a few jovial chuckles before gesturing towards the school's amphitheater with his unoccupied hand. "Now go on! Run along! You don't want to keep your headmaster waiting, now do you?"

With a collective sigh of relief, all the students with the exceptions of Nero and Ruby were quick to accept the out the portly professor gave them, disbanding in seconds. Yang and her red-clad opponent still remained though, mainly due to the fact that after seeing the initiates disband, he cast his gaze in their direction.

"Now then, you two… if these were normal circumstances, then I'd be forced to leave the both of you with a week's worth of detention for initiating combat outside of the proper classes. In fact, if Ms. Goodwitch was privy to what the two of you were just doing, that would still be the case… with much more than just detention in mind for causing a commotion and potentially damaging school property on your first day here, I imagine." The portly man explained, a firm but calm tone in his voice as he explained what exactly the consequences of their actions would normally be. Yang, at the very least flinched slightly as he spoke, seemingly recognizing that she was in trouble, while the heterochromatic swordsman just continued to listen with that annoyed scowl still on his face. "Fortunately for the both of you, however, the school year hasn't even begun yet and I am _not, _in fact, Ms. Goodwitch, so I'll be willing to let you both off with a warning so long as you both exercise some actual restraint from this point onward."

"Uh, got it, teach. Won't happen again." Was Yang's quick response, showing clear relief that she'd just be getting off with a slap on the wrist.

"No complaints here. I was minding my own business up till _she _decided she came in outta nowhere and tried to kick my shit in." Was the swordsman's blunt and annoyed take on the matter, his words getting him a glare from a still-pissed Yang.

"Ho ho! Very well then! Well, like I said to your impromptu crowd, I'd recommend making sure you're not late for Professor Ozpin's speech. More often than not, they're quite the inspiring bunch of words to listen to." And with that jovial statement, the mustachioed instructor turned around and went on his way, leaving the four remaining Beacon initiates standing there. For his part, Nero just wasn't sure what to make of this entire experience while Ruby found it to be an immense relief that not all of Beacon's teachers were as scarily strict as Ms. Goodwitch.

Regarding the two people that were the center of attention just a few moments ago, the red-clad young man just let out an annoyed breath before finally sheathing his blade on the small of his back. He was about to take his leave as well when the voice of a certain, grating blonde caused him to stop dead in his tracks. "Well! Looks like it was your lucky day, edgelord."

Turning around, the swordsman didn't hesitate to level an icily furious glare at Yang's flippant remark, who was merely standing there with one hand on her hip and an infuriatingly smug smirk on her face. "You wanna say that again, you _psycho-bitch?"_

Ruby couldn't help but wince at the venom in that man's tone, and the uncertain look of anxiety on her face only worsened when that remark wiped the smirk off Yang's face. Refusing to back down, the blonde instead marched right up to the red swordsman and returned his glare with full force, staring him down. "What, are you starting to go deaf or something? Well alright, I'll make it extra clear to you this time around; you're awfully lucky that the school staff bailed you out before I fed you a balanced breakfast of your blood and teeth."

In response to that venomous statement, the red-clad young man's eyes went wide for a brief moment, and Yang smiled in bitter satisfaction as a result, but that soon went away when she heard the distinct sound of _snickering _coming from him. Eyes wide in disbelief, Yang could only watch as his short chuckles soon evolved into full-blown laughter, like he just heard an absolute knock-out of a joke. Blinking away her surprise, the blonde gripped her hands tightly before angrily demanding "What the hell are you laughing at!?"

"N-Nothing! I just…! _SNRK_-! I just think it's hilarious that you're so amazingly fucking stupid and overconfident, to the point that you seriously think that's how things would go down if we fought for real." The swordsman managed to get out after suppressing his laughter with much difficulty. Yang looked as though she had a furious rebuttal in mind for his insults, but she was beaten to the punch when the heterochromatic man looked her in the eyes and continued. "Believe me, Yang; if I really wanted to, _I could've left you as a bloody, unrecognizable mess on this walkway." _

Yang could only recoil in shock at the venom and utter lack of joking in the red swordsman's words. But before she could even try to formulate a response to his threat, he once again beat her to it. "Having said that, as much of a pain in the ass as you are, can't really say I'm out for your blood. With that in mind, how about you do us both a favor and leave me the _fuck _alone from this point onward?" And with that statement left hanging in the air, he turned around and began to walk away.

Finally, upon letting that question sink in for a brief moment, Yang managed to think up the best possible response from her perspective, and that was to let her aura flare up with her own affronted temper, her hair taking on a golden glow and her eyes turning dark red once more. "Do you _really _think you could beat me that easily!?"

In response to feeling her aura flare up, the gruff man stopped for a moment before turning back towards her with a sideways glance, looking more irritated with her at this point than anything. "Tell you what; meet me outside this school or in the arena a few days from now and I'll gladly hammer that fact through your thick skull." And without giving the floored blonde a chance to respond, he continued in the direction the rest of the initiates and students went, leaving this part of the courtyard empty save for Yang, Ruby, and Nero.

At this point, the blonde in question could only stand there, watching where Ragna walked away with an utterly infuriated expression on her face and her aura only getting more and more pronounced. Frankly, at the rate she was going, Nero halfway expected the incensed blonde to go nuclear.

"I… better make sure she calms down." Was all Ruby could manage, she and Nero being the only ones that stuck around to witness the scene that played out in front of them.

"...Yeah, that's probably for the best. After hearing what that other guy just said, I'm half-expecting her to start demolishing this place." Was Nero's accurate observations on the whole matter. Giving Ruby a pat on the shoulder before continuing. "Let's talk more later."

Ruby could only fluster up in slight giddiness at Nero's word -and assurance that they were indeed friends as a result- before giving him an eager wave and smile despite the ticking powderkeg that was her sister standing a few feet away from them… although it was worth noting that she seemed to have caught on to their presence and subsequently calmed down a bit at the sight of her little sis having a friendly talk with someone. "A-Alright! I'll see you later, Nero!"

And with that, Nero left Ruby to try and calm her irate sister down, absent-mindedly bringing out Blue Rose and twirling it with his finger as he walked further into the campus. _'Talk about a rocky start. Granted, even Atlas and its schools had its share of eccentrics… Guess it's no shocker there'd be more of that here times a dozen.'_

As he continued on his way, passing by a few students and initiates in the process, Nero eventually spotted a familiar shade of white standing over one of the bodies of water that littered the campus outside the school's amphitheater. "Hey there. I was wondering where you stomped off to." The young man greeted, re-holstering Blue Rose as he approached. As he expected, Weiss still didn't appear to have gotten over what happened on the walkway with Ruby and that black-haired girl, instead letting out an annoyed huff and refusing to look at him.

"Oh, so it seems you're done cavorting with that red and black pest, are you?" Weiss grumbled, crouching down so she could get a better look at her clear reflection in the water. For his part, Nero could only raise a brow at the girl's choice of words before responding.

"Yeah, and I see you're still using flowery words like 'cavorting' without any bit of irony." Nero pointed out dryly, only to get a sharp look from Weiss immediately after.

"If you think you can just joke and smart-mouth your way out of things like usual, you're sorely mistaken, Nero. It was one thing to encourage the behavior of that _dolt,_ but another thing entirely to do the same when that disrespectful girl started bad-mouthing my family!"

"I mean, it was less bad-mouthing your whole family and more just bad-mouthing your dad and his shady, under the table bullshit." Nero pointed out. When Weiss's look of upset annoyance didn't fade, he could only sigh before continuing. "I don't get what your deal here is. We're both in agreement that your dear old dad's a dear old dickhead, so why're you getting so worked up over what she said about him?"

"Because if you paid any bit of attention to the way she spoke, then it was obvious that she thinks the rest of my family and I are no better than my father. More to the point, regardless of my relationship with him, it's still going to be grating when she blatantly insults him and my family's company to my face." Weiss explained pointedly, finally getting up from her kneeling position in front of the water to properly address him.

_'Well… acting as haughty as you usually do will do that.'_ Nero thought, but wisely opted to keep his mouth shut regarding that particular train of thought. Plus, while he'd never miss out on an opportunity to badmouth Jacques Schnee, the douchebag that he is, he could still see where Weiss was coming from on this, so he instead opted to go about things a bit more tactfully. "Well… hey, all the more reason to prove her wrong once you inherit the throne."

"Obviously! I've told you this before, and I'll say it again; things are going to change for the better once I'm at the helm of the Schnee Dust Company, Nero." Weiss exclaimed, her bent out of shape demeanor finally taking a turn for the positive as she puffed her chest up with pride. The rare show of energy behind her words combined with their sincerity caused Nero to let out a muted chuckle, an amused smile growing on his face.

"I got no doubt about that, Weiss. Anyway… while your dad's always gonna fall under the camp of 'unlikable douche' in my book, I… uh, wouldn't have sat back if she started badmouthing you too." Nero explained, his tone growing a bit more hesitant as he continued, all while he found himself suddenly unable to look Weiss in the eye.

"I suppose that's as close to an apology as I'll get from you on this matter, is it?" Weiss asked, giving him a deadpan look as she spoke. When Nero opted to not respond, instead just shifting around uncomfortably while still refusing to look at her, the heiress opted to roll her eyes before smiling lightly. "You're very fortunate I know you so well."

"Yeah yeah, you sure do… anyway, can we get rolling now or what?" Nero muttered, tapping Weiss's shoulder with his right hand before gesturing towards the amphitheater, where all the other Beacon initiates were going.

"Very much so." Weiss affirmed before taking a moment to look at where Nero touched her. After another moment, her bright-blue gaze shifted to Nero's completely concealed right arm. With curiosity now gnawing at her, the heiress opted to simply address it upfront. "By the way, Nero… why haven't you taken those wrappings off your arm yet?"

The way Nero came to a sudden stop and stiffened up in response to her question wasn't lost on Weiss. Looking at him questioningly, she continued. "Given that it's been weeks since that accident and you don't need that sling anymore, I'm guessing those injuries must have healed by now. So… why have you opted to keep it bandaged up since?"

"Right… that…" Nero began, looking much more uncomfortable than Weiss expected as he looked over his right arm, lightly picking at the black masking tape wrapped around it. "Uh… basically, I _am _back to a hundred percent now, but uh... Fact is, those injuries left some pretty nasty scars on this arm. They… don't look like they're gonna fade any time soon, so I'd rather keep them under wraps, figuratively and literally, and avoid any attention they'd get altogether."

"Oh, I see." Weiss nodded, making sure not to let her skepticism show. In reality, the uncharacteristic way Nero froze up when she brought up his right arm raised more than a few red flags in her head. That type of behavior was highly uncharacteristic of her normally cocky and hot-headed friend. But at the same time… if he really felt so uncomfortable regarding whatever the issue with his right arm was, then she wasn't going to press the matter.

Quickly opting to lighten the mood and get his mind off the matter, a playful demeanor overtook Weiss with her next statement. "And here I thought you were just making a fashion statement."

"What? Can't it be both?" Nero scoffed, returning her playful smile with a teasing smirk of his own.

And so, with the mood considerably lightened, the white-haired duo continued on their way to the Amphitheater.

000

**-XxXxXxX-**

000

**Beacon Amphitheater,**

Once the pair arrived, they found the building to be loaded with students from different kingdoms, with the majority being residents of Vale itself. Both Atlesians weren't fazed by the sight, however, since they were familiar with environments similar to this back at home, with Weiss being a famous singer in Atlas while Nero joined the kingdom's military at a young age.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. Have you been through any kind of initiation before in Atlas…?" the heiress asked him.

"Nope. I got in through recommendations from Winter… Had something to do with 'being so talented at such a young age' or something like that…" the Atlesian boy replied, adding a sarcastic comment at the end.

"Drop the sarcasm. You don't have to be a jerk if you refuse to tell me…" Weiss ordered him and glanced away from him, hiding her pouty face from Nero's view.

"It's not really sarcasm given I'm just stating the truth. I'm really just that good." The Specialist bragged and stopped when they finally found an unoccupied spot to stand within the crowd. However, not two seconds later, the heiress was already sick of the crowded atmosphere she was in.

"Ugh, is it always like this in all Huntsmen academies…?"

"Not in Atlas. Thanks to their strict no fun policy, most of their students have some kinda stick shoved up their asses… Some moreso than others, so I prefer something livelier than what Atlas has to offer." Nero answered while giving his honest opinion of the different atmospheres both Beacon and Atlas create.

"Well…" Weiss thought about it for a moment and took another look at her surroundings. "… I suppose it does feel considerably more comforting than being surrounded by silent statues." The ponytailed girl said to him, causing him to smile and nod slowly.

"Exactly—" "I wish!" a familiar voice cut him off, earning both their attention.

"I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I started choking, and then I was saved by Nero, and then I apologized, and then she yelled again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me." From the beginning to the end of that sentence, both Nero and Weiss slowly turned their heads to see Ruby and her sister from the courtyard.

A vein appeared on Weiss' forehead as her anger from earlier returned. "_'I take back what I just said.'_ She growled before stomping up to the oblivious Ruby. You!"

_"Oh god it's happening again!"_ the young girl cried, leaping into her sister's arms in fright.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" Weiss scolded her without hesitation.

"Oh my god, you really exploded." Yang, Ruby's sister, remarked with a look of worry.

"Actually, we didn't. It was a close call, but ultimately we lived." Nero reassured, but didn't really lighten the mood with that fact.

"It was an accident… It was an accident!" the red-cloaked girl defended herself as she landed back onto the floor. However, her face was met with a pamphlet within the hand of said heiress.

"What's this?" Ruby asked.

"Ugh, not this again…" Nero groaned, annoyed with the heiress' antics.

"The Schnee Dust Company is notresponsibleforany_injuriesordamagessustained,whileoperatingaSchneeDustproduct,**althoughnotmandatorytheSchneefamilyhighlyencouragestheircustomerstoreadandfamiliarizethemselveswiththiseasytofollowguideonDustpracticeandapplicationinthefield."**_ Weiss explained, although to Nero and Ruby, her voice got more high pitched and faster as she gave the information to Ruby.

"Umm… What?" the young redhead asked simply, confusion dripping from her tone.

"You really want to make things up to me?" Weiss asked, and Ruby responded with a hesitant nod. "Then read this and don't ever speak to me again." The ponytailed heiress explained and shoved the pamphlet into Ruby's hands, to which Nero decided to cross his arms.

"Weiss, come on. Just give it a rest, you're making a big deal outta nothing here..." He advised the heiress, only for her to ignore him.

"Yeah, what he said! Look, uh, it's pretty clear you two just got off the wrong foot. Why don't you both try starting over and be friends, okay?" the blonde brawler suggested, trying to mend things between the two.

"Y-Yeah, great idea sis!" the young girl agreed with her sister's, named Yang, idea before turning back to Weiss, clearing her throat a bit.

"Hello again Weiss, I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies." Ruby re-introduced herself and asked the heiress.

"Oh yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys like tall, blond… and scraggly over there!" She replied with mock enthusiasm, gesturing a hand to a blond boy standing a few feet behind them, earning his attention.

"Wow, really?!" Ruby asked in a hopeful tone, seemingly oblivious to the sarcasm dripping from the heiress's tone.

Weiss glared at the girl in dead silence before answering with a blunt_ 'No.'_ all while Nero could only sigh in exasperation behind the heiress, bringing a hand up to his face. Just then, someone coughed lightly into the stage microphone and earned the students' attention.

Upon the said stage, stood a man with silver hair and bright brown eyes, clad in a green suit, small round glasses and equipped with a cane. This man is Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy. "I'll… keep this brief..."

000

**-XxXxXxX-**

000

_'Alright, this is more like it…'_ Nero sighed, taking a seat on the roof of the ballroom as he looked up at the skyline. The sight of Remnant's many stars and shattered moon were complimented by the otherworldly green glow of the CCT tower in the distance. _'No way in hell was I gonna get any sleep if I had to spend it stuck with that many people.'_

While Nero was a bit reluctant to leave Weiss alone in that ballroom, especially if there were any showboating punks that would try to put the moves on her, the anti-social side of him that loathed being around most other people won out and caused him to seek out some other place to spend the night that wasn't jam packed with initiates. His search eventually led him to the entrance to the ballroom's roof, giving him both fresh air and all the personal space he needed.

_'Eh, whatever. Myrtenaster isn't for show. She doesn't need me to teach some punk eyeballing her some manners.'_ The white-haired youth thought as he slid his headphones on and blasted his favorite hard rock song. Sliding off his white specialist overcoat and unbuttoning his black undershirt, leaving his upper body in a black tank top, Nero took a seat on the edge of the roof as he enjoyed the music.

"Hm… this place is definitely a far cry from Atlas and its shitty weather…" The swordsman mused to himself, appreciating the feeling of the light breeze on his exposed arms… or rather, just his left arm, given that the entirety of his right was still concealed in its red bandages.

Now reminded of the ever present issue he'd been dealing with as of late, Nero couldn't help look down at his concealed arm with a sense of apprehension, all too aware of what those bandages were concealing. Ever since his right arm changed into that… scaly, _monstrous _appendage, he'd been feeling an ungodly mixture of emotions and thoughts towards it, mainly that of fear and apprehension, but after his encounter with that man in the red coat, he now had an equally large amount of questions and confusion surrounding it.

"Just what the hell's happening to me…?" Nero thought aloud, reaching over and slowly beginning to undo the bandages on his arm, revealing more and more of neon blue skin and red scales.

***Creaaaak...***

However, before Nero could completely unwrap the bandages, he was stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the door opening. Well-aware that it was likely someone coming onto the roof, Nero quickly got to his feet while simultaneously hiding his arm behind his back, his posture tense. The last thing he wanted was some random asshole getting an eyeful of his messed up arm.

"Ugh, great. Figures someone got here before me." A gruff, mature voice groaned out, his tone conveying mild annoyance. As he turned to address whoever came in, Nero got a better look at their features. A quick look over caused the youth to realize it was the same guy that got into a brawl with Ruby's sister, albeit with that vibrant red jacket of his slung over his shoulder. He currently had an annoyed scowl on his face that seemed to be his default expression as he eyed Nero.

"You again…" Nero muttered, eyeing his fellow white-head with a mix of skepticism and curiosity.

"The hell is a greeting like that supposed to mean? What, am I supposed to know you or something?" His fellow swordsman barked out, returning Nero's skeptical gaze with one of his own.

"Not really. You're just looking at someone who got a front-row seat to that brawl of yours earlier."

"You too!?" The gruff man was quick to let out an annoyed groan in response to this, slapping a hand to his face as he did so. Judging by his reaction, it seemed that Nero wasn't the only one that recognized him from his fight with Yang. "Great, not even a day in and that bipolar bitch's already getting me unwanted attention."

"...Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. So who the hell are you, and what're you doing up here, anyway?" The specialist asked bluntly, his demeanor guarded. He wasn't sure what to make of this guy yet, but regardless, he wasn't going to let anything show.

"Sounding a bit judgmental on that second question, aren't we?" The man noted, giving his company a questioning look. When Nero's suspicious, questioning gaze didn't falter, the black-clad young man merely shrugged before speaking up once more. "Well, if you're really so curious, then between some of the company downstairs being a bit too loud and annoying for my liking and spending more time sleeping outdoors than in, I was hoping to get a change of scenery for bed."

Well, it was certainly reasoning Nero could relate to, he'd give him that. After finishing his explanation, the black-clad man began to address him once more, his gaze both questioning and casual. "Anyway, I could ask the same thing about you. Why are you up here?"

"Same as you. I'm not much of a people person myself, so I figured it'd be a good idea to find somewhere a bit less stuffy to call it a night at." Nero explained casually before turning around, sitting back down and placing one of his headphones up to his ear, taking care not to expose his right arm as he did so. "Anyway, I already called this spot, so go find somewhere else."

"Oh what a crock of bullshit. Who the hell says you can call this entire rooftop to yourself?" The white-haired man questioned in irritation, subsequently getting on Nero's nerves as well.

Reacting almost instinctively to argumentative words, Nero quickly slid off his headphones, got up, and turned to better address his unwanted company, the latter's annoyed expression mirroring his own. "If you wanted to set up camp up here, then maybe you should've come up here before me! You didn't, so why don't you do us both a favor and take a hike!"

The man looked as though he had a similarly heated remark in response, but before he could get the words out, his heterochromatic eyes subtly drifted downward till they noticed something curious in Nero's direction. Forgetting about his previous irritation, the next sound that came out of the man's voice was one of subtle confusion. "Huh?"

His eyes following his company's gaze, Nero felt his heart skip a beat when he realized that the man had noticed Nero's right arm and the peaks of scales and bright blue flesh peeking through the bandages.

_"You see something you like?"_ Nero demanded, his tone deathly serious and his posture tensing up considerably as he angled his body in a way that blocked the view of his arm.

"...Well I'd be lying if I said your arm didn't catch my eye just now." The man answered simply, his tone neutral, neither suspicious nor curious.

"And what the hell's it to you, huh!?" Nero growled, feeling his temper flaring up more and more with each passing second. However, to Nero's surprise, rather than rise to his angry, defensive question, the man merely held up his hands in surrender.

"Look, whatever the deal with your arm is, I'm not gonna ask, it's none of my business anyway." The gruff young man said, his tone surprisingly calm. "Sorry if I was bugging you. If you wanna be alone here, then I get it. I'll just find somewhere else to set up camp."

And with that said, the man placed one of his hands in his pocket, secured his grip around his jacket with the other, and began to walk away, leaving a surprised Nero at a momentary loss for words. However, he quickly regained his voice a quick moment later.

"Hey!" He called out, causing him to stop in his tracks. Without turning around, he waited for whatever it was Nero had to say. "...Why the sudden hospitality?"

"Well… in your particular case, I guess it's cause I can probably relate to whatever it is you're dealing with. Call it presumptuous, but I got this hunch that you and I got similar problems in that regard."

And without waiting for a response, he walked through the doorway leading back into the building, once again leaving Nero alone with nothing but the moon and starlight for company.

"_'We got similar problems?'_ What, he speaking from experience or something?" Nero thought aloud, contemplating what exactly the man was referring to before clicking his tongue when he realized the pointlessness of such questions. "Ah, whatever. Why the hell do I care anyway?"

Trying to take his mind off what just transpired, Nero properly set up his sleeping bag before lying down on it and once again blasting the music into his headphones. That being said, despite his best efforts to forget about it, the hot-blooded youth couldn't pretend that the slight curiosity about the fellow white-head and his cryptic words gnawed at him.

**_To be continued…_**

**_AN: _**And that's a wrap! The main cast has been introduced and had brief encounters with one another. We removed certain scenes from canon, like Ruby's explosion, Ozpin's speech and the ballroom scene cause we thought it would be following canon too much and decided to alter and add-in our own twist to the chapter.

Major thanks and shoutout to my beta-reader and co-writer **lolrus555 **for helping me write this chapter, and helping me flesh out the story in general! This fic wouldn't be possible without him, so you guys should definitely support him by checking out his on-going fanfic **Joseph Joestar: Hamon Hunter!**


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